Atlantica - 01.05.2002, Page 25

No Bond. No Bond girl. But who cares if Pierce Brosnan or Halle Berry didn’t show?
The highlights of any Bond film are the stunts and cool cars.
And there were plenty of stuntmen and flashy cars on hand during production of Die
Another Day, the latest instalment of the Bond franchise, portions of which were
filmed at the dramatic Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in southeast Iceland.
“I wanted Pierce to be here, but we couldn't get him," said second unit director Vic
Armstrong. "We can shoot him in blue-screen back in England."
Even without 007 or the newly crowned Oscar winner, a crew of roughly 200 were on
location to film the five-minute chase scene involving a pine-green Jaguar and a grey
Aston Martin racing across the lagoon with massive, turquoise icebergs as obstacles.
"It's the climax to the middle of the movie. Bond is being chased and he must escape
to save Halle Berry from the Ice Palace that’s about to sink," said Armstrong, who has
also worked on the Bond films Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough.
"It's the scene with all the guns and gadgets."
The script also called for a wintry scene in a forest. Oddly enough, Iceland didn’t pro-
vide film-makers with enough snow, so crews made their own and then brought 225
Norway spruce to the set. Ah, the magic of movies.
Die Another Day is set for release on 22 November in the US and UK. EW
Die Another Day
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