Shooting for New Bond Flick, Casino Royale Underway in Prague
Production continues on the latest hot 007 movie, Casino Royale, based on Ian Flemming’s 1953 novel, with filming in the Czech Republic beginning this week.
Directed by Martin Campbell, Casino Royale stars Daniel Craig as James Bond, alongside latest Bond-girl, Eva Green as Vespa Lynd and Mads Mikkelsen playing the villain; Le Chiffre.
Vesper, the new Bond-girl to star in Casino Royale will be adding more to the movie than just more arm candy, as the character plays a central part in the story and is very much an equal to Bond.
The Czech film shoot for Casino Royale is expected to be completed by the end of May before production moves to Venice for five days and will finally move to the UK pinewood Studios. Filming began in the end of January, with shooting in the Bahamas, set to represent scenes in the island nation of Madagascar, wrapped last week.
EON Productions, the holders of the Bond franchise, are working together with a joint venture between Colombia Pictures and MGM, and MGM executives made a tour of Casino Royale’s Prague set a week ago. MGM Chairman and CEO Harry Sloan, COO Rick Sands, and other executives in the Czech Republic to promote the coming launch of the MGM Channel in Central Europe, toured the Casino Royale sets and sound stages where a critical gambling scene was being filmed.
The scene is between James Bond and Le Chiffre, playing a game of Texas Hold’em poker, though in the original Casino Royale novel Baccarat was played. Unfortunately for 007 fans, star actor Daniel Craig revealed that he knew absolutely nothing about the game of poker, prompting producers to bring in British poker champion John Duthie to come to the Berlin set and teach the cast the basics of the game.
Further disappointments to Bond fans came when Craig admitted that he hates guns, doesn’t like martinis and doesn’t know how to drive the Bond trademark car - a manual Aston Martin.
The Pinewood Studios’ water tank will be in use for filming of Casino Royale’s climatic action scenes, however the tank is being deepened from 8 feet to 20 feet for use in the Casino Royale shoot.
Colombia plans to release Casino Royale in cinemas on November 17th this year.
