Trivia - Tomorrow Never Dies MGM exerted a lot of pressure on the producers to come up with a swift follow-up to "GoldenEye" (1995) that was as successful. This was mainly at the urgings of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian who had recently bought the company and wanted the release to coincide with MGM's public stock offering. The first draft of the script was set during the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule with Carver a zealot bent on destroying Hong Kong rather that hand it over to the Chinese. According to director Roger Spottiswoode, this plotline was dropped when former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was acting as a consultant on the production, warned that if something actually did occur during the handover in real life the film (which was set to open a few months later) would look ridiculous. This led to a last-minute rewrite. Martin Campbell declined the chance to direct again, not wanting to make two James Bond films in a row. Campbell would do the same in 2006 after the success of "Casino Royale" (2006). The was the first film to take neither plot nor title from James Bond creator, Ian Fleming. Writer Bruce Fierstein's nine word pitch to the film's producers was: "Words are the new weapons; satellites, the new artillery." The weapons described at the Terrorist Arms Bazaar are a Chinese Long March Scud Rocket and on the jet aircraft were Soviet SP-5 Torpedoes. Neither are real weapons. The former, "Long March", was a short-lived Chinese space programme. The production utilised Type 23 Duke Class Anti-Submarine Frigates along with the interior of HMS DRYAD ship simulator. Extras in the Navy sequence were Royal Navy. Because snow was an essential ingredient for the opening action sequence, and the existing snow was already melting, the art directors had to truck in loads of extra snow just to meet production requirements. This sequence alone took two weeks to complete. This was not unlike the troubles EON Productions experienced on the 1969 film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The scene in which Bond raids the Terrorist Arms Bazaar features a genuine Russian rocket launcher. The truck was transported by the crew from Moscow to the French Pyrenees. The character of Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) was originally written as a young man from India. Ricky Jay, who plays Henry Gupta, is a magician who is an expert at card-throwing. Originally, Gupta was to throw cards at Bond. But when Jay almost injured Brosnan's face with a card during filming, the idea was dropped. Gupta is shown throwing cards in the DVD deleted scenes. The film is dedicated to the memory of Albert R. Broccoli - the James Bond series' long time producer. It is the first film in the series to read "Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions Presents..." in the credit sequence. Daphne Deckers, wife of the Wimbledon 1996 Winner Richard Krajicek, makes a cameo as Elliot Carver's PR Lady A real stealth ship inspired the production to create Carver's superboat. It was developed by Lockheed but rejected by the US Navy. James Bond has a new gun in this film. It is the Walther P99, which is the replacement for his trademark Walther PPK. He picks up the gun in Wai Lin's apartment. Sales of real and toy replica Walther P99 pistols went through the roof after this movie was released. Monica Bellucci was originally cast and scheduled to appear in the film but was replaced before shooting began. The role of Elliot Carver was initially offered to Anthony Hopkins. The actor had previously been offered, and turned down, roles in Bond films past. The ships used in the film are Type 23 Duke Class Anti-Submarine Frigates. The interior shots were all filmed at HMS DRYAD ship simulator at Portsmouth, and most of the personnel in the background are real Royal Navy personnel. Most of the dialogue and commands are very accurate, though some has been modified so the viewing public can understand it. The BMW 750iL that Bond is issued with has the number plate B-MT 2144; his Aston martin DBV has the plates BMT 214A (both here and in "Goldeneye" [1995]) or BMT 216A (in "Goldfinger" [1964] and "Thunderball" [1965]). The BMW is the first Q-Branch car in the series that has four doors. Götz Otto dyed his hair blond to play Stamper. A lot of the model work and underwater sequences were filmed in the "Titanic" tank at Fox's Baja Studios in Mexico, just days after "Titanic" (1997) had completed filming. These two films were released in the same week in the USA, causing this to be the only one of Pierce Brosnan's four James Bond films not to open at number one in the US box office charts. Bill Tanner had a role written for him in an early draft of the script but when Michael Kitchen could not make the shooting dates for "Tomorrow Never Dies", the character was not recast. The American Embassy in Bangkok had a bit of a scare when one of the production helicopters hovered overhead for a while, causing staff to fear that they were being spied on. Some have commented on a possible Star Trek gag - in "Tomorrow Never Dies", a general named Chang (in the pay of Elliot Carver) plans to start a war between England and China using stealth weaponry. "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991) features a Klingon general named Chang trying to start a war using a stealth ship. Coincidence? A promotional advertisement for BMW tying-in with the movie showed its three vehicles (two cars and one motorbike) together with the logos for the movie and BMW. The main tagline read: "How could Bond possibly be faithful to just one? BMW - The Ultimate Driving Machine." Director Roger Spottiswoode had hoped that the descent outside the building could be done by computerized special effects, but in the end a 7-storey section of wall was constructed and the stars lowered down alongside it. The film made particularly heavy use of gadgetry because some fans thought there was too little of it in "GoldenEye" (1995). The original title of the film was "Tomorrow Never Lies", which makes sense when you consider media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) was creating the next day's headlines in advance, then causing those events to happen. But a typo on an early script draft was adopted by the producers, and "Tomorrow Never Dies" was used instead. Another rumour circulated that the film was originally going to be called "Tomorrow Never Comes". There are apparently video tapes that were in distribution when the film was released on video that do have the caption "Tomorrow Never Comes" at the very beginning of the tape, not the beginning of the movie. The stealth ship is not a fictional invention. Lockheed secretly constructed and demonstrated one in the early 1980s, but the US Navy finally decided they didn't want any. The prototype, called the Sea Shadow, was 160 feet long and the movie's ship closely resembles it in shape. 15 BMW 750's were destroyed in the making of the film. Four were adapted to be 'hidden driver' cars, in which a concealed driver would sit in the back using a small steering wheel. Video monitors were attached to cameras hidden in the wing mirrors and on top of the windscreen. Three more BMW's were used as backup for the hidden drivers. One car was equipped with the sliding glove compartment revealing a safe and only used for this one scene. Another, dubbed the 'cannon', was specially prepared to be propelled off the roof. It was stripped off as much weight as possible in order to be fired from a special rig. The remaining 'pristine' cars were used only for back-up and exterior shots, including one that was being kept in Hamburg for shooting there. 500 extras were used for Elliott Carver's launch party where Bond reconnects with Paris. "Tomorrow Never Dies" was the first James Bond movie to be released by MGM Distribution Co. due to a name change from MGM/UA Distribution Co. The former named company had released all the EON Productions Bond films from "Octopussy" (1983) through to "GoldenEye" (1995). When Bond gets out of his BMW and hands the keys to the valet, he says "Lass dich nicht verarschen." This is a German idiom which means, approximately, "Don't let him/them/it make an ass of you." In several scenes of Bond's approach to the final battle onboard the stealth ship, the island used by Francisco Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974) is visible. Because the second half of the film is set in Vietnam, the production negotiated for some time for permission to film there. Although it appeared close, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information eventually refused to allow it. The production decided to use Thailand as Vietnam, with Bangkok substituting for Saigon. Teri Hatcher's scenes had to be filmed quickly because after she got the part she found out she was three month's pregnant. She said that she accepted her role in this movie to fulfill her husband's lifelong dream of being married to a Bond girl. Producers considered starting a film series based on the character played by Michelle Yeoh but so far, no film has been made. Stuntman B.J. Worth had to make eighty jumps out of a plane in order to film the HALO jump sequence, eight jumps less than the 88 required for "Moonraker" (1979). In the original drafts of the script Stamper was to have suffered a brain injury that caused pleasure to be registered as pain (an vice versa). The idea was dropped, but a version of it made it into the next Bond film "The World is Not Enough" (1999), where the main villain is unable to feel pain. British pop group Pulp wrote a theme song for this movie, which was ultimately rejected by the producers. The song later appeared on the B-side to the group's single "Help the Aged" following a title change to "Tomorrow Never Lies". This is the first James Bond movie in the official series to have a running time under two hours since "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971). The next film to run under 120 minutes would be "Quantum of Solace" (2008). Michael G. Wilson - the film's producer - can be seen as Tom Wallace, one of Elliot Carver's subordinates on a television screen when Elliot Carver discusses his new story. He delivers the line: "Consider them slimed." Towards the end of the movie M (Judi Dench) muses upon a probable newspaper story concerning the death of Elliot Carver. She mentions similar events which surrounded real-life British media tycoon Robert Maxwell's death in 1991. Stunt performers Mark Southworth and Wendy Leech performed the skyscraper jump on 21 May 1997 in Bangkok, with temperatures reaching as high as 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In earlier drafts of the script, the villain Elliot Carver was known as Elliot Harmsway and Wai Lin was known as Lin Pow. The actress eventually cast to play Wai Lin, Michelle Yeoh, reminded the writers that Pow meant "bun" and so the name adjusted. Vincent Schiavelli's character is a hit man who kills Teri Hatcher's character. He also played a hit man in one episode of "MacGyver" (1985), who was again, after Teri Hatcher's character, though not as successfully. This is the first movie in film history to have its entire budget be covered in product placement campaigns: BMW, L'Oréal cosmetics, Heineken beer, Dunhill, Ericsson, Omega Watches, Smirnoff Vodka and other companies each chipped in enough in endorsements to allow for the film's $100 million budget. The movie's score was not complete in time for the release of the soundtrack. As such, a second soundtrack album was released on 11 January 2000 by Chapter III Records.