What country would you like to be the MAIN location for BOND 26?

edited June 2020 in Bond 26 & Beyond Posts: 1,894
This thread, I admit, is slightly inspired by Balje's creation suggesting a sewer as a Bond villain's lair. It reminded me of the thread on the old forums about appropriate locations for Bond films. This thread is a recreation of old - what locations do you want to see?

Allow me to open the bidding with this: the <b>McLaren Technology Centre</b> in Woking. Bond villains are often wealthy industrialists, and usually have some kind of headquarters - like Hugo Drax's sprawling aerospace engineering compound in <i>Moonraker</i>, or Elliot Carver's braodcast centre in <i>Tomorrow Never Dies</i> - that Bond visits. And naturally, they have (or at least try to have) that Ken Adam larger-than-life quality. Looking at pictures of it online, the McLaren Technology Centre has just that. It's slightly futuristic, has aesthetic lines, and plenty of glass:

<img src="http://i.treehugger.com/files/mclaren_technology_centre_aerial.jpg">;

<img src="http://www.archimage.co.uk/Images/Architecture/007Architecture.jpg">;

<img src="http://www.theplanningboardroom.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/112_0706_01z+mclaren_technology_centre+building_view.jpg">;

<img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XxpcMDMb9Co/TT3JsLn8y5I/AAAAAAAAABM/4UU_tqlLsYk/s1600/mclaren_technology_centre_fp270509_ny_22.jpg">;

<img src="http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/mclarentechnologycentre-7.jpg">;

<img src="http://www.cars-show.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/mclaren-team-garage-082.jpg">;

Of course, the cars would probably have to go - otherwise, it would just look like Patrick Dempsey's office in <i>Transformers - Dark of the Moon</i>, and the less we say about that, the better. But the beauty of it is that McLaren is a Formula 1 team, and Formula 1 has a mandatory two-week shut-down during the summer, usually for the month of August. So EON could reasonably film Bond there without affecting the day-to-day operations.

Any other suggestions?
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Comments

  • Posts: 5,745
    Haha some QoS slo-motion 'splosions would fit right in to this place!

    How about a lair in the Hollywood sign.. oh wait.

    No, seriously, pre-9/11 I would have said the World Trade Center. The new modern buildings being built would be amazing to use, but I'm sure some of the sillier Americans would complain. (I'm an American, I'm patriotic, but you can film there all you want, let alone build a mosque down the street [which you can't now])

    This hotel in Abu Dhabi: image

    I'm trying to focus on what the head of Quantum would fit into. Something that connects politicians with philanthropists and the other professions the Quantum-ites possesses in QoS.
  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,567
    Great idea for a thread. Keep 'em coming.

    Both of these are impressive buildings.
  • LudsLuds MIA
    edited September 2011 Posts: 1,986
    Quebec City's Chateau Frontenac

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  • edited October 2011 Posts: 1,894
    Lupu Bridge, Shanghai

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    Buzludzha Monument, Bulgaria

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    The Great Ocean Road, Victoria

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  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    Wow, any of those would do. Quebec city has lots of other places besides the Chateau that would work for a Bond film, lovely city indeed!

    I'd like to add the Douro region (Portugal) where Port wine is produced. The perfect place for a car chase.
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    The roads are scary, very narrow and curvy and the railroad looks like it's going to fall into the river in some places.
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    Photos simply don't do it justice.
    image

    And the BMW Welt in München (Germany), striking!
    image
  • Posts: 1,894
    If it's a twisty road you want, allow me to introduce you to the Transfăgărășan highway in Romania, known locally as "Ceauşescu's folly" and voted by Top Gear as the single best piece of road in the world:

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  • Artemis81Artemis81 In Christmas Land
    Posts: 543
    All those locations are really cool, would love to see them in a Bond film.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Okay, that's pretty cool, Balje. I could see at least four of them - the Bund in Shanghai, Iidabashi in Tokyo, the Stockholm Tunnelbana and Drassanes in Barcelona - being a part of the villain's underground lair, maybe has his intended escape route with his own private bullet train.
  • Are we talking about Bond or Adolf Hitler :-))
  • Posts: 1,894
    Bond villains can have private trains and underground lairs.
  • Indeed, as Trevelyan had one in Goldeneye, and Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, i.e. it was under the ground
  • Posts: 1,894
    Besides, if Hitler had an udnerground bunker with private train, then that just establishes a precedent: evil people have lairs and trains. Ergo, a Bond villain can have a lair and a train. And if he has something like Bund, Iidabashi, the Tunnelbana or Drassanes (which would be a good name for a villain) as part of his lair, then that just goes to show that he is evil and he has taste.
  • Posts: 1,894
    Okay, with the knowledge that SKYFALL will take place in Shanghai, here's a few locations that could be used:

    Expo Axis
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    China Pavilion
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    Shanghai Stock Exchange
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    Nanjing Road East
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    Shanghai Expo Cultural Centre
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    Shanghai International Circuit (would need to be carefully shot)
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  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,459
    I love this thread - the photos are amazing! Filming in Shanghai confirmed so now I am even more excited.
  • Posts: 3,160
    For Shanghai location, I would put my money on:

    http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=116595
  • Posts: 1,894
    The problem with that tower is that it won't be finished until 2014.

    I reckon most of the pavailions from the 2010 Expo in Shanghai would look great. Most of them have been taken down since the the Expo, but they'd look great as inspiration for buildings:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pavilions_of_Expo_2010
  • Posts: 3,160
    An unfinished skyscraper could be a more interesting location than a finished one :-)
  • Posts: 4,619
    I just realised that Skyfall will be the first Bond film since 1999 without a Caribbean location!

    Caribbean locations in Bond films:
    - DN: Jamaica
    - TB: Bahamas
    - LALD: San Monique (fictional, filmed in Jamaica)
    - LTK: Bahamas
    - GE: Cuba (filmed in Puerto Rico)
    - DAD: Cuba (filmed in Spain)
    - CR: Bahamas
    - QOS: Haiti (filmed in Panama)

    Ever since LTK Bond has visited a Caribbean location in nearly every movie!
  • Posts: 1,894
    The Great Orme, Northern Wales

    image

    With filming taking place further up the coast in Scotland, the Great Orme could be a good setting to fit in with the castle. It's also the scene of one of the most famous rallying stages in the world, which was revived for the first time in thiry years:



    It's narrow, blind, uneven and very, very fast with a sheer cliff to one side and a drop into the Irish Sea on the other. And to make it all the more difficult, there's a three-inch-high kerb on the right-hand side, which is completely invisible.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited November 2011 Posts: 28,694
    Kyoto Station, Japan
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  • Posts: 5,745
    The Kyoto Station in Japan
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    erm.. I think you meant

    image

    haha :P
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    The Kyoto Station in Japan
    image
    erm.. I think you meant

    image

    haha :P
    If you bothered to check you would've seen I fixed it. [-(
  • Posts: 645
    @JWESTBROOK I really like the Dubai hotel idea as well.
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  • Posts: 5,745


    If you bothered to check you would've seen I fixed it. [-(
    :/ Twas simply a joke #:-s
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 13,879
    At the start of the year I read somewhere that EON was negotiating to shoot in Dubai. At this point it's obviously a rumor, but I'd love to see Bond visit Dubai in the next couple of films.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694


    If you bothered to check you would've seen I fixed it. [-(
    :/ Twas simply a joke #:-s
    So Twas mine friend.


    ;-)
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    At the start of the year I read somewhere that EON was negotiating to shoot in Dubai. At this point it's obviously a rumor, but I'd love to see Bond visit Dubai in the next couple of films.
    That was probably people getting mixed up with Carte Blanche, when all those rumours surfaced.
  • Posts: 1,894
    I'm not that keen on Dubai, or any of the other Emirates, for that matter. I find them to be a little tacky, with all the buildings designed to compete with one another, rather than complement one another. It's a place where money is thrown at problems, like they're trying to buy the world's attention, rather than earn it.
  • Posts: 1,894
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