Skyfall (James Bond 23)

By DocM
in The Media Room

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
Grand Master

George P Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

Craigs Bond is more like the original Fleming version from the novels compared to the ones we've had in the movies. A number of the later movies overdid it a bit while in the novels Bond is often less than perfect and shows more emotion iirc.

Grand Master

Growled Member

Posted
  • Member
Posted

I still can't make my mind up about Daniel Craig, i think i like the more cheeky chappy appeal of bond. Will definitely watch it when it comes out in hopes that it's better than previous.

I like Craig well enough but I like Pierce Brosnan better as Bond.

Grand Master

Muhammad Farrukh

Posted
Posted

IGN Has Seen the Skyfall

We visit the set of James Bond's new movie.

We were among several media outlets invited to Pinewood Studios in England last week to observe the filming of Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond movie. Here's what we saw, so be advised that there's some spoilerish material ahead.

Officially, Skyfall sees MI6 come under attack, revealing M's (Judi Dench) dark past and testing 007's (Daniel Craig) loyalty to her as he goes after the threat no matter the cost. Beyond that, the cast and filmmakers wouldn't reveal much more. In the sequence we witnessed being shot, Pinewood's famed 007 Stage had been transformed into the Temple Street station of the London underground for the climactic portion of an extended chase that takes place midway through the film.

Bond has pursued his quarry Silva (Javier Bardem) into a tunnel. After an exchange of gunfire, Silva, who is dressed as a Metropolitan Police officer, triggers an explosion in the wall behind Bond that will send the train traveling above crashing through the ceiling, nearly killing both hero and villain. Alas, we only saw the explosion and not the train derailment, which was scheduled to be shot the next day. This sequence is one of two major train stunt set-pieces in Skyfall (the other will be shot in Turkey in the coming weeks), both of which were designed by Oscar-winning special effects whiz Chris Corbould and his team.

In addition to the Tube station, sets at Pinewood have included an MI6 safe house, an abandoned Japanese island city, a Shanghai highrise and a waterfront casino in Macau. The two-story casino set, which was still being built with pieces from China, will see Bond (gasp!) meet a beautiful woman for a drink at the bar. The haunting abandoned city, inspired by Japan's Hashima Island, is where Bond meets Silva. It was an eerie, striking setting of dilapidated buildings, abandoned bicycles and a giant, fallen statue of a leader in the middle of the town center.

There are only about six weeks of filming left, with the production slated to finish at Pinewood within the next two weeks and then relocating to Turkey where filming will wrap in late May. Skyfall began shooting in early November and locations have included Shanghai, the Scottish Highlands, Surrey and London. With 2012 marking the 50th anniversary of Bond on film, it seems fitting that 007 should literally come home to London for it, but Craig was quick to caution us not to read too much into the role the capital city plays in the film.

"That's actually a little bit of a misconception. We're filming a lot in London, but it's only because we get photographed in London every time we go out into the streets. But the rest of the time we've been here in Pinewood on huge sets, which are based all around the world," said Craig during a roundtable interview.

"We're about to leave for Turkey next week, which will sort of double the number of locations. We're using London in a very particular way. Sam [Mendes, the director] and everybody, we were all very keen to capture the parts of London you wouldn't ordinarily see but that Bond would have access to. So it's partially very much about London and partially about lots of other things."

Then what exactly IS Skyfall about? That's a very good question we never really got answered. Unlike during our Quantum of Solace set visit in 2008, where Bond producer Michael G. Wilson pretty much spilled all the beans about the film on the record, the cast and filmmakers this time around were more tight-lipped than Christopher Nolan on a wiretapped phone. (That's probably why Wilson wasn't on set this time!)

So what do we know about the movie? Well, we now know that the "government official" played by Ralph Fiennes is named Mallory and that he has oversight over M and MI6 and, judging from the first photo of him, he's also handy with a gun. Mallory is also said to have a contentious relationship with M. "Yes, we do lock horns in this, but then I think I lock horns with nearly everybody this time," said Dench, who wrapped on the film the previous week.

"There's more to it [this time]," said Dench of how M and Bond's relationship is different in this film than in the prior two entries. "By nature of the fact that she has more to do and I think you see that she's an altered person a bit. ... There's more of her and she's not being kept in that shed in the back." (Dench also certainly wouldn't comment on those rumors making the rounds online.)

We know Naomie Harris plays an MI6 field agent named Eve who has a relationship with Bond. He also romances the morally ambiguous Severine (Berenice Marlohe), a character who the actress said also has a few scenes with Silva. "The terms we use to describe her are glamorous and enigmatic," said Marlohe during a roundtable chat. "Enigmatic is important because you can't really put her in one of the classic categories of good or a villain. This is very interesting and it is also what Daniel did with James Bond. His colors are not that obvious. So I like this word enigmatic. I like to give her the most complexity of a human being and not determine color."

Likewise, Oscar winner Javier Bardem enjoyed the opportunities presented by the role of Silva. "It's always about the material and when I read it, it was very strong, very well put together and very powerful in many ways and that the character that they were offering me had a lot of different possibilities to have fun doing it and also create a person," he recalled. "I didn't see a reason to say no to this and I'm glad I didn't because I'm having a lot of fun."

We also learned during our chat with the film's armorer Joss Skottowe that Bond not only fires his usual Walther PPK as well as a machine gun during the film, but also antique English flintlock pistols and one hell of an old school elephant gun. Pity the poor ****** who buys it from that beast! (And, yes, we got to hold Bond's Walther PPK and, no, that's not a euphemism.)

The film's title certainly has a doomsday-esque connotation to it with the idea of the sky falling. "We think it sounds like a Fleming title for that very reason, Skyfall. His titles always had many meanings. And when you see the movie, you'll understand," said producer Barbara Broccoli coyly.

  • 4 weeks later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Apple MacBook Neo is a blessing for Windows users, here's why

      By +samw61 · Posted

      But the reality is it will work for people's needs, and they don't care about the technology that makes it. Clearly not everyone's needs, but that low end space where personal laptops were only used to type emails, watch content and browse websites, but they didn't want to do that on a small screen device. Heck, writing that out I can now see the connection and reason it'll do so well. Apple is about experience. If the experience is bad, they don't release it. Low end Windows laptop manufacturers up until this point have not taken that into consideration ever before, so slow laggy usage with brittle slimey plastic shells were common. I hope that the low end space at least creates better physical products that last a bit longer, and if Microsoft get their act together, they could also have a solid OS on such low end hardware that would actually make the experience work for what the hardware was intended for. The fact that the CPU is a "cellphone", sorry mobile phone processor is irrelevant. It's about the experience, and so far, that sounds quite solid.
    • Module Blocked - Is this Okay?

      By goretsky · Posted

      Hello, Bonjour is Apple's implementation of a multicast-DNS service, which allows devices running Apple's software and/or hardware to find each other on your local network.  I believe the Windows version was last updated around 2010. If you do not need it, you can stop and disable the Bonjour service in the Services Control Manager (filename: SERVICES.MSC).  Once you have done that, the operating system will no longer attempt to load the service. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky  
    • This AMD RX 9070 16GB GPU that performs close to Nvidia 5070 is under $600

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      This AMD RX 9070 16GB GPU that performs close to Nvidia 5070 is under $600 by Sayan Sen With the memory shortage that's prevalent nowadays, discounts are super-hard to get. As such we post good deals whenever they pop up. Recently, we covered a few great discounts on SSDs wherein you can get a 4TB TeamGroup NVMe PCIe Gen4 drive for just $400 thanks to a special coupon. If you want a faster product but don't need all that capacity, you can also opt for Samsung's 990 PRO 2TB that is on sale for its lowest price in over three months. Let's say though that you are on the hunt for a 1440p gaming card. In that case AMD's RX 9070 non-XT can help, and with its 16GB VRAM, you can also run AI models locally without worrying about bottlenecking (check out our recent 9070 GRE reviews for gaming and productivity to get an idea). The PowerColor Reaper variant of the RX 9070 is currently on sale for just $580 which is a very good price in the current state of affairs (purchase link under the specs table down below). The Reaper cooler on this 9070 uses a triple‑fan design with ring‑blade fans, paired with premium dual ball bearings to extend lifespan and reduce friction. "Intelligent" fan control allows the fans to remain idle at lower temperatures, only spinning up when the GPU is under load. A nickel‑plated copper base makes direct contact with both the GPU and memory modules, helping to spread heat evenly. PowerColor also applies Honeywell PTM7950 phase‑change thermal interface material (TIM), which fills microscopic gaps between the die and heatsink for more efficient thermal transfer. The fan shroud is shorter in height as the firm has made it such that it can be used in certain SFF (small form factor) cases. The technical specifications of the Reaper RX 9070 are given in the table below: Specification Value Stream Processors 3584 Units Video Memory 16GB GDDR6 Memory Speed 20.0 Gbps Memory Interface 256-bit Engine Clock Game Clock: up to 2070 MHz Boost Clock: up to 2520 MHz Bus Standard PCI Express 5.0 x16 Display Connectors 1 x HDMI 2.1b, 3 x DisplayPort 2.1a Maximum Resolution DisplayPort: 7680 × 4320 HDMI: 7680 × 4320 Board Dimensions 289mm × 111mm × 41mm 304mm × 127mm × 42mm (with bracket) Slot 2 Minimum System Power Requirement 600W Power Connectors Two 8-pin PCI Express Get the PowerColor Reaper RX 9070 at the links below (you get only a 90-day warranty on Woot): PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9070 16GB Graphics Card (RX9070 16G-A): $579.99 (Sold and Shipped by Amazon US) (Was: $700) PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9070 16GB Graphics Card (RX9070 16G-A): $559.99 (Sold and Shipped by Woot US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • DWARF mini review: the world's smallest smart telescope for night and day sky captures

      By ZipZapRap · Posted

      Are they marketed as an entry into astronomy or astrophotography? I do astrophotography. With big rigs, lots of computers, cables and headaches. I love it. And by learning this ridiculously complex hobby, I’ve learned about the objects I’m shooting. Astronomy followed from photography.
    • Microsoft confirms Recycle Bin bug across all versions of Windows

      By Usama Jawad96 · Posted

      Microsoft confirms Recycle Bin bug across all versions of Windows by Usama Jawad A couple of days ago, we reported that the latest Patch Tuesday update has seemingly resulted in a lot of issues for many users, including OneDrive and Dropbox access problems, BitLocker recovery lockouts, and BSODs. Although Microsoft is yet to acknowledge these bugs, it has confirmed another, relatively smaller issue across all supported versions of Windows. In an update on its Windows Release Health Dashboard, Microsoft has confirmed that after installing June's Patch Tuesday update (KB5094126), you'll experience unexpected behavior when leveraging Recycle Bin. Basically, when you attempt to delete an item from the Recycle Bin, the confirm dialog will show you the internal file name of that content rather than the actual name. For example, the file may be named abc.png, but the confirm dialog will ask if you're sure that you want to permanently delete $Rxxxxx.png from the Recycle Bin. This is pretty much it for the scope of the bug itself; it just displays the wrong name in the confirm dialog. The correct name will be shown in the list view of the Recycle Bin and if you restore the file, it will return with the correct name as well. This issue affects pretty much all supported versions of Windows client and server, including: Client: Windows 11, version 26H1; Windows 11, version 25H2; Windows 11, version 24H2; Windows 11, version 23H2; Windows 10, version 22H2; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 Server: Windows Server 2025; Windows Server 2022; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server 2016; Windows Server 2012 R2; Windows Server 2012 As things currently stand, Microsoft is working on a concrete solution that will be released in a "future" Windows update. It remains to be seen if the firm will wait till the next Patch Tuesday or roll out an out-of-band (OOB) fix. The good news is that commercial customers can deploy a workaround right now, but they will have to reach out to Microsoft Support for Business for additional details.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Jordan Smith earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Reacting Well
      BizSAR earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • First Post
      AndreaB earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Huge Trailer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Classifyskilleducation earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      579
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      184
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      75
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      72
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!