Saturday, October 18, 2008

New Bond prefers Pinewood to Prague

007 is returning to his original HQ. After partly deserting London's Pinewood studios for Prague and the Czech Republic to film Casino Royale, the next Bond movie will be shot back in the UK.
According to Variety, Bond producers have decided not to film the 22nd outing of Her Majesty's secret agent at Prague's Barrandov studios because of the lack of financial incentives, such as tax rebates, for film productions in the eastern European country. The decision is a victory for Pinewood executives, who have lobbied hard to keep 007 movies at the British studios, where most of the Bond films have been shot, after rumours that the next film's studio scenes would relocate completely to Prague. Casino Royale was shot both in Prague and Pinewood.
The decision by Bond producers will come as a welcome boost for Pinewood studio, which suffered a devastating fire that destroyed parts of the Casino Royale sets last July. Filming on the latest adventures of Bond will begin in December, with Marc Forster, a German-born director more associated with intimate dramas than high-octane action films, at the helm.
The 22nd 007 film, which is as yet untitled, will be based on a script he and the Oscar-winning writer-director Paul Haggis will develop. Their screenplay will be based on a draft by previous Bond collaborators Neil Purvis and Robert Wade. Haggis, Purvis and Wade shared writing credits on the latest Bond outing, Casino Royale, widely credited with having rejuvenated the 45-year-old franchise. Daniel Craig has already confirmed that he will don the black tuxedo once again.