Skyfall is the twenty-third James Bond film, produced by Eon Productions for MGM, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment.^[3] Directed by Sam Mendes, it features Daniel Craig's third performance as James Bond and Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film's villain. The film is due to be released in the UK on 26 October 2012, which includes IMAX venues.^[4][5]

Premise[link]

James Bond's loyalty to M is challenged over secrets from her past. When MI6 is attacked, it falls to Bond to seek out and eliminate the threat regardless of the cost to himself.^[6]

Cast[link]

The main cast of Skyfall was officially announced at a press conference held at the Corinthia Hotel in London on 3 November 2011,^[7][8][9] fifty years to the day that Sean Connery was announced to play James Bond in the film Dr. No.^[10]

• Daniel Craig as James Bond, agent 007. Director Sam Mendes described Bond as experiencing "[a] combination of lassitude, boredom, depression [and] difficulty with what he's chosen to do for a living."^[11]
• Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva,^[12] the film's main antagonist. Bardem described Silva as "more than a villain", while Daniel Craig stated that Bond has a "very important relationship" to Silva.^[13]
• Judi Dench as M, the head of MI6 and Bond's commanding officer. Skyfall will be Dench's seventh consecutive film in the role.
• Ralph Fiennes as Mallory,^[14] a government agent with the authority to regulate MI6.^[15] Fiennes stated that he could not say anything specific about the role other than that it was "[a] really interesting part which is really quite fun".^[16]
• Albert Finney as Kincade.^[17]
• Naomie Harris as Eve. Early speculation suggested that Harris would play Miss Moneypenny,^[18][19][20] though the character's first name was revealed as "Eve" with no surname disclosed, and she was specifically described as "a field agent". Despite ongoing speculation from tabloids that Eve would be revealed as Moneypenny,^[21] Harris herself dismissed claims that she would be playing the character, stating that "Eve is not remotely office-bound".^[22] According to Harris, Eve "[believes] she is Bond's equal, but she is really his junior".^[23]
• Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, the MI6 Chief of Staff.
• Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine.^[24][25] Marlohe described her character as being "glamorous and enigmatic",^[23] and that she drew inspiration from GoldenEye villain Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen) in playing Sévérine.^[26]
• Helen McCrory as Clair Dowar, a British politician.^[27][28] McCrory joined the cast after Sam Mendes contacted her personally and offered her the part.^[29]
• Ola Rapace as Patrice, a French mercenary who "is a man of few words" and "loves violence".^[30]
• Ben Whishaw as Q.^[31] The character returns to the franchise after being absent in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

Jens Hultén will also appear in the film, reportedly playing an accomplice of Javier Bardem's character.^[32][33] Ben Loyd Holmes confirmed on Twitter that he had a role in the film.^[34] Greek model Tonia Sotiropoulou, who unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Sévérine, revealed that she had been cast in a secondary role in the film.^[35]

Production[link]

Javier Bardem was cast as Raoul Silva, Skyfall's villain.

Naomie Harris plays Eve, one of Skyfall's "Bond girls".

Development[link]

Production of Skyfall was suspended throughout 2010 because of MGM's financial troubles. They resumed pre-production following MGM's exit from bankruptcy on 21 December 2010, and in January 2011 the film was officially given a release date of 9 November 2012 by MGM and the Broccoli family, with production scheduled to start in late 2011. Since then, MGM and Sony Pictures announced that the UK and Ireland release date would be brought forward to 26 October 2012, two weeks ahead of the US release date, which remains 9 November 2012.^[36] The film's budget is estimated to be at $150 million,^[2] down from the $200 million spent on Quantum of Solace.

The film is to be part of year-long celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Dr. No and the Bond film series. According to producer Michael G. Wilson, a documentary crew is scheduled to follow production of the film to celebrate the anniversary.^[10] Skyfall will also be the first James Bond film to be released in IMAX venues.^[4][5]

Title[link]

In August 2011, several news websites reposted a rumour that originally appeared in Serbian newspaper Blic stating that Bond 23 would be entitled Carte Blanche and would be an adaptation of the recent continuation novel by Jeffery Deaver.^[37] On 30 August, Eon Productions officially denied any link between Bond 23 and Carte Blanche, stating that "the new film is not going to be called Carte Blanche and will have nothing to do with the Jeffery Deaver book."^[38]

On 3 October 2011, fifteen domain names including 'jamesbond-skyfall.com' and 'skyfallthefilm.com' were reported to have been registered on behalf of MGM and Sony Pictures by internet brand-protection service MarkMonitor. This led to supposition in media that the film had been given the name "Skyfall". These reports were not confirmed at the time by Eon Productions, Sony or MGM.^[39]

Skyfall was later confirmed as the title at the November press conference, during which co-producer Barbara Broccoli said that the title "has some emotional context which will be revealed in the film".^[40]

Crew[link]

Skyfall is directed by Sam Mendes, who first signed on to the project shortly after Quantum of Solace was released, and remained on-board as a "consultant" during the period of uncertainty surrounding MGM's financial situation. Speculation in the media^[41] suggested that Mendes had commissioned rewrites of the script to "[remove] action scenes in favour of 'characterful performances'" with the intention of bidding for an Academy Award.^[41] Mendes denied the reports, stating that the film's planned action scenes were an important part of the overall film.^[10]

Peter Morgan was originally commissioned to write a script, but left the project when MGM filed for bankruptcy and production of the film stalled; despite his departure, Morgan later stated that the final script was based on his original idea, retaining what he described as the film's "big hook".^[42] The final script was written by Bond screenwriting regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, as well as John Logan.^[43][44][45] Logan recounted being brought into the project by his long-time friend Sam Mendes, describing the process between Mendes and the writers as "very collaborative", and that writing Skyfall was one of the best experiences he had had in writing a film.^[46]

Roger Deakins has signed on as cinematographer, having previously worked with Mendes on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road.^[47] Deakins used the Arri Alexa camera for filming.^[48] Thomas Newman, who worked with Sam Mendes as composer for American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead and Revolutionary Road will replace David Arnold as composer.^[1] Arnold commented that Newman had been selected by Mendes because of their work together, rather than because of Arnold's commitment to working with director Danny Boyle as composer for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[49] Dennis Gassner returns as production designer, the costume designer is Jany Temime, Alexander Witt is director of the second unit, the stunt co-ordinator is Gary Powell and Chris Corbould will supervise the special effects, while the visual effects supervisor is Steve Begg. All have worked on previous Bond films.^[3]

Locations[link]

Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli travelled to South Africa for location scouting in April 2011.^[50] With the film moving into pre-production in August, reports emerged that shooting would take place in India,^[51] with scenes to be shot in the Sarojini Nagar district of New Delhi^[52] and on railway lines between Goa and Ahmedabad.^[53] The production crew faced complications in securing permission to close sections of the Konkan Railway.^[54] Similar problems in obtaining filming permits were encountered by production crews for The Dark Knight Rises and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.^[55] Permission was eventually granted to the Bond production crew, with some additional restrictions put in place at the request of the Indian authorities;^[56] however, it was later reported that the production crew had elected not to shoot in India.^[57] Further reports emerged stating that filming would take place in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square,^[58] the Hagia Sophia museum, the city of Fethiye and the Varda railway bridge near Adana,^[59] with production expected to spend three months in the country.^[60] Scenes in Adana will see the town stand in for the outskirts of Istanbul.^[30]

Mendes confirmed that China will be featured in the film, with shooting scheduled to take place in Shanghai and "other parts" of the country.^[10] Additional scenes were filmed at Royal Ascot, standing in for Shanghai Pudong International Airport.^{[citation needed]} The first official image from the film was released on 1 February 2012, showing Daniel Craig on set at Pinewood Studios, doubling as a skyscraper in Shanghai.^[61] Set reports dated April 2012 reported that scenes would be set on Hashima Island, an abandoned island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.^[62][63]

Shooting was planned to take place at Duntrune Castle in Argyll, Scotland for the finale,^[64] but was cancelled shortly after filming began.^[65] Glencoe was instead chosen for filming of these scenes.^[66]

Filming[link]

Principal photography was scheduled to take up 133 days.^[48] Filming began on 7 November 2011^[67][68] in and around London,^[10][69] with scenes shot in Southwark and Whitehall, the National Gallery,^[70] Smithfield meat markets and St Bartholomew's Hospital,^[71] Canary Wharf,^[72] the Department of Energy and Climate Change,^[73] Charing Cross station and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich,^[74] with residents reporting further filming as taking place in Cadogan Square,^[75] Tower Hill,^[76] and Parliament Square.^[77] The Vauxhall Bridge was closed to traffic for filming the aftermath of an explosion at the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross. Unlike The World Is Not Enough, which also featured an explosion at the building — which was filmed at a large-scale replica — the explosion in Skyfall will be added digitally in post-production.^[78] Photos taken by residents in the city's Deptford district revealed the presence of an Aston Martin DB5 on location.^[79]

Production moved to Turkey in March of 2012, with filming reported to be continuing until 6 May.^[80] A group of Turkish teenagers infiltrated a closed set in a railyard in Adana to film rehearsals of a fight scene on top of a train before being caught by security.^[81] Parts of Istanbul — including the Spice Bazaar, Yeni Camii, the Imperial Post Office, Sultanahmet Square and the Grand Bazaar — were closed for filming in April.^[80] Store owners in the affected areas were reportedly allowed to open their shops, but were not allowed to conduct business, instead being paid TRY750 (US$418) per day as compensation.^[80] Production faced criticism for allegedly damaging buildings while filming a motorcycle chase across rooftops in the city. Michael G. Wilson denied these claims, pointing out that the film crew had removed sections of rooftops before filming began and replaced them with replicas for the duration of the shoot; when filming finished, the original rooftops would be restored.^[82]

References[link]

External links[link]

James Bond portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Skyfall's cast and crew

• Official website
• Skyfall at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Its only attribution is to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

Barbara Dana Broccoli, OBE (born June 18, 1960) is an American film producer known for her work on the James Bond film series.

Life and career[link]

Broccoli was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of the James Bond producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and actress Dana Wilson Broccoli (née Natol). She majored in motion picture and television communications at Loyola Marymount University prior to working in the casting and production departments at Eon Productions, the production company responsible for the James Bond series of films dating back to 1962. Currently she co-produces Bond films with her half-brother Michael G. Wilson. She is the youngest of four children raised by Cubby and Dana Broccoli, the half-sister of Michael G. Wilson (mother Dana, born: 1943), and Tina Broccoli (mother Nedra Clark-Broccoli, born: 1958) and Tony Broccoli (adopted by Cubby and Nedra Clark-Broccoli, ca. 1956-57)

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen of the United Kingdom in the 2008 New Year Honours.

James Bond franchise[link]

Broccoli started in the Bond franchise at the age of 17, working in the publicity department of The Spy who Loved Me. Six years later, she became an assistant director on 1983's Octopussy. Soon after she had worked her way up further to become an associate producer on the film The Living Daylights in 1987.^[1] However, her most notable role was being a producer of the Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

[edit] Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Following her father's death in 1996, Broccoli created the stage musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang based on the 1968 musical film starring Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes. Broccoli rehired the original songwriters from the film to write the new material for the stage version. The Sherman Brothers wrote five new songs for the show which debuted on April 16, 2002. The show ran at London's largest free house, the London Palladium and was the most financially successful show to have ever played there, breaking numerous other impressive records as well. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang went on to play successfully in both the United States and throughout the United Kingdom.

[edit] Chariots of Fire (2012 stage play)

Broccoli is currently co-producing Chariots of Fire, the stage adaptation of the film of the same title. Broccoli's involvement with Chariots of Fire extends back to 1980, when she introduced her friend Dodi Fayed to the screenplay, and he ended up co-financing the film and becoming its executive producer.^[2] She is co-producing the play along with Hugh Hudson, who directed the 1981 Oscar-winning film.

Filmography[link]

Assistant director[link]

• Octopussy (1983)
• A View to a Kill (1985)

Associate producer[link]

• The Living Daylights (1987)
• Licence to Kill (1989)

Producer[link]

• GoldenEye (1995) directed by Martin Campbell
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) directed by Roger Spottiswoode
• The World Is Not Enough (1999) directed by Michael Apted
• Die Another Day (2002) directed by Lee Tamahori
• Casino Royale (2006) directed by Martin Campbell
• Quantum of Solace (2008) directed by Marc Forster
• Skyfall (2012) directed by Sam Mendes

References[link]

External links[link]

• Barbara Broccoli at the Internet Movie Database