Look who's back: Daniel Craig returns as Bond in Skyfall - but can 007's 23rd big-screen outing live up to the hype?



Now that’s what we call an entrance.



After tearing open the roof of a train with a 22-ton excavator, James Bond leaps into a packed carriage in Turkey and continues his pursuit of the assassin Patrice in the epic 11-minute opening sequence for the new 007 film, Skyfall



The train carriage James Bond crashes into for the opening scene is one of nine supplied by Turkish rail authorities in Adana. This main ‘stunt carriage’ was extensively modified by special effects co-ordinator Chris Corbould and his team. Here, Bond is standing on the bucket of the excavator he’s used to rip off the carriage roof. A wire cable connects the bucket to the carriage to keep it stable while the train is moving

The creative partnership at the heart of Skyfall was forged, fittingly, over a drink.



The late Ian Fleming, bon vivant and author of the 12 Bond novels and two collections of short stories, would doubtless have approved.



Daniel Craig was chatting to director Sam Mendes at a party when the idea came to him that his old friend and colleague – they had first worked together on Road To Perdition in 2002 – would be perfect to direct the 23rd movie in the hugely successful James Bond franchise.

Mendes, who won an Academy Award for American Beauty, and had been fascinated by Bond since childhood, was recommended to producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who planned to shoot the film towards the end of 2010 for a 2011 release.



But then in a twist worthy of a Bond plot, at the end of 2009 MGM Studios, one of the main production companies behind the franchise, suddenly announced it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Without financial backing, ‘Bond 23’ had to be postponed.



The enforced hiatus proved to be a blessing in disguise. Mendes spent the year working on the script and a few days after a draft was delivered in December 2010, MGM overcame its financial crisis.



'Making it (Skyfall) unmistakably British was a dream of ours,' said Daniel Craig

The waiting was over – ‘Bond 23’ was given the green light for filming to begin late in 2011. With a reported budget of $150 million (around £90 million) Skyfall wrapped in May this year.



According to Bond rights holders Broccoli and Wilson (co-owners of Eon Productions), the delay has resulted in a quality of film the likes of which we haven’t seen since Goldfinger, with Craig’s moody and introspective Bond more closely resembling the Bond portrayed in Fleming’s original novels.



DANIEL CRAIG Sam and I talked about Live And Let Die being the first Bond film we’d seen in the cinema. We talked about the early movies; about Goldfinger, about the mistakes and about the great things. I felt an immediate connection to somebody who had exactly the same enthusiasm and respect for it that I did. I knew that he would put all of his knowledge of movie-making behind it and also his knowledge and love of Fleming and Bond.



SAM MENDES The difficulty with Bond is that everyone owns the role, everyone has an opinion. Other people have played it and people will probably still play it after Daniel. We all know what a Bond movie is, but how do you make it in a way that’s yours? We happen to be living in a time when it’s possible to make a big, entertaining, glamorous, escapist movie that also says something about the world that we live in. With Daniel’s performances in Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace, Bond feels like a real man in a real situation again. It reminds me of the way I feel when I watch the Sean Connery movies.



MICHAEL G WILSON MGM had a terrible time financially and so we had to wait until that situation was resolved. But we kept on preparing and we were ready to go as soon as they got themselves organised.



BARBARA BROCCOLI We really wanted a picture in our 50th anniversary year (Dr No was released in 1962) and our goal was to try and make this the best film ever. It’s a classic Bond film. We have all the requisite Bond things – beautiful women, great leading man, superb cast, great locations.

DANIEL CRAIG We had very clear-cut plans for the film. Making it unmistakably British was a dream of ours and was a red rag to a bull with Sam. Having a good script was also essential. The dialogue is crucial; it’s snappy and intelligent.



SAM MENDES Bond is actually a remarkably difficult part to play because he says very little and the moment you make him say too much suddenly he’s not Bond any more. He mustn’t explain his actions, he operates on instinct a lot of the time, he has his own inner demons but he doesn’t show them to other characters – and yet we must, as an audience, be aware of them.



DANIEL CRAIG Everyone talks about the gadgets, the cars and girls. We’ve got all that. That was day one. After that it was how do we make all of those things interesting and put them into a very emotional and touching story.



‘Skyfall’ is released on October 26





The opening sequence: An epic 11-minute chase throughout Turkey

Craig and Patrice (Ola Rapace) trade blows on top of one of the carriages

The roof might look like steel but is in fact inch-thick neoprene rubber that has been given a flaky paint finish to look like weathered metal. It meant the actors and stuntmen could run across it and dive to the deck without injury.



The sequence took place along five or six miles of track out of Adana in southern Turkey – the line runs from the city centre into the mountains.



Wire safety lines, just visible on the left and right of the carriage roof, meant the actors could run freely up and down the rooftops during the fight sequences while tethered by a wire for safety; the train was travelling at 50mph.

Bond double Andy Lister stands on the Caterpillar excavator as Craig looks on from the ground. It's Lister's job to run across the arm of the excavator before Craig jumps down into the carriage

Craig prepares for the close-up scenes of Bond's attack on the carriage. The Land-Rover Defender is being driven by MI6 agent Eve (Naomie Harris)

Behind the Scenes: Craig and Rapace on the set of Skyfall





Daniel's stunt double

By Jon Wilde in Adana, Turkey



A few yards away, a man standing on the roof of a train, perched midway across a 300ft-high viaduct, is about to hurl himself into the abyss.

My reckless companion is 30-year-old stuntman Andy Lister. This is his biggest and most challenging job to date. His plunge will form the thrilling climax to the pretitle sequence of Skyfall, as Bond takes a bullet from a most unexpected quarter and seemingly falls to his death.

We are on the Varda Viaduct, a 560ft-long arched bridge traversing a deep canyon in the remote Adana Province of southern Turkey.



Andy Lister, Craig's stunt double, hanging above a 300ft-high viaduct in Turkey

‘We’ve completed ten weeks’ intensive rehearsal for this one scene,’ Lister told me earlier.



‘Daniel and I sat down and discussed the fight scenes on the train in minute detail.

'In the scene we’re about to film, Daniel has fallen from the train and I need my movements to match Daniel’s as closely as possible. I’ve studied how Daniel runs, how he walks, how he fights. But they’ll still need to do a face replacement in post-production to make me look exactly like Bond.’

But the risks are high.



‘Daniel did the initial shot where he falls a few feet from the train,’ says Lister.



‘The rest is up to me. It’s better that I get hurt than Daniel. If he gets hurt the movie comes to a standstill.’

Crew members attach Lister’s four-point harness supported by two super-strength Tech-12 cables to the giant crane observing the scene from overhead. The sun disappears behind clouds just as we’re ready to shoot.



The lighting, which must identically match when Craig did the same scene a few days earlier, is now wrong.



Finally the sun appears from behind the clouds and we’re ready to shoot. The camera helicopter hovers, then zooms in perilously close to the bridge.



Nervous anticipation stirs among the crew. With his back turned away from the bridge, Andy Lister steadies himself on top of the train, takes a deep breath and then plunges down at breathtaking speed towards the waterfall below.



Midway, he slams to a halt and, for the next five minutes, dangles in mid air like a puppet while the 200-strong crew break out into a bout of backslapping and high fives.





