Bond 23 to be shot in Versailles (France)?

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Environmental terrorists rampage through the palace once home to Marie-Antoinette before making their escape past gardens designed on the orders of Louis XIV, the Sun King. It can only be a job for Bond. James Bond.
- Quantum is back? Or does the head of Quantum live here?

That, at least, is the hope of Parisian civil servants who have written a storyline for 007 centred on Versailles, hoping to persuade producers of the next Bond film to set a scene or two in the 17th-century château.

“We want to give the producers some ideas, because it would be great to have James in the magnificent decor of the château,” Stéphane Martinet, the deputy director of the Paris region film commission, told The Times.

A total of 165 movies have been filmed at Versailles, the home of French royalty until the Revolution of 1789. Mr Martinet said: “Producers tend to think of it as a setting for period movies, but these are not the most profitable films these days. We would like to get across the message that Versailles could be a location for all sorts of different movies.”

The initiative comes amid a concerted attempt by French authorities to lure foreign film producers — notably from Hollywood — to the country’s monuments. Selling points include some of the world’s most celebrated buildings and landscapes, rates of as little as €4,500 (£4,000) a day for an ordinary château and a 20 per cent tax break introduced last year as part of a package to tempt producers away from other countries, including Britain.

“This has the double virtue of maintaining the idea of France as a tourist destination and of creating employment,” Mr Martinet said.

The commission believes that the sight of Bond blasting his way through Versailles before perhaps enjoying a romantic moment in its extensive grounds, or sculling on the lake would generate global publicity for the jewel of Gallic architecture, not to mention production fees of €16,000 a day to boost its heritage budget.

The attempt to bring Bond to the home of the ancien régime is likely to ruffle the feathers of traditionalists, who complain about what they describe as the theme park atmosphere at Versailles.

Purists were furious when it staged an exhibition by Jeff Koons, the contemporary American artist, in 2008. Now they are incensed by an announcement that the palace would welcome works by Takashi Murakami, the Japanese painter, this autumn.

Bernard Hasquenoph, an artist who has led a campaign against an increase in the cost of entry to the palace, said: “I thought it was an April Fool when I first heard about it. I wouldn’t have anything against filming a Bond movie. What I don’t like is the way that Versailles is being turned from an historic site into a tourist site.”

He blamed a government decision a decade ago to ask the palace to manage its budget of €100 million a year. “Ever since then, they have been doing everything they can to develop their own resources.”

Mr Martinet said that the arrival of modern artists, along with the efforts to encourage films, such as Bond,, were part of an attempt to turn Versailles into a “centre of European artistic creation as it was in the time of Louis XIV”.

The 23rd Bond movie is due to be released next year.

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