Skyfall

The sky almost fell on a nearly completed Skyfall film before it was completed.  The twenty-third Bond film was written by screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Peter Morgan in November 2009.  Faced with bankruptcy the film was stalled, not from lack of popularity but from lack of funding support because MGM Studios which was the co-owner of the franchise was on the brink of bankruptcy.  Sony Pictures came to the rescue in 2010 as MGM emerged from bankruptcy.  Support from Sony Pictures allowed the film to bring on Sam Mendes as the director.  Sam decided that the script needed to be rewritten and invited John Logan to revise the script as an opportunity to make major changes.  Moneypenny was reintroduced as a field agent with a larger part in the plot and her name “Eve” was introduced.  Q was reintroduced as a young and more technology advanced inventor who was up to date and current with the information age.  The villain was also reintroduced into the character of Raoul Sousa seeking direct revenge on Bond for betraying him years earlier.  This film would provide the ultimate climax at Bond’s Scottish ancestral home named Skyfall which fit well into the fiftieth anniversary of the film series.
 

The location of this film was at Pinewood Studios in London.  The pre-titles sequence was performed by the lead actors Daniel Craig and Ola Rapace who were performing many of the stunts in a fast action sequence filmed on location in Turkey on a moving train above a 300 foot drop.  Both Pinewood’s Paddock Tank and 007’s stage were used for the variety of scenes from the waterfront Macau Casino, the “Dead City”, to the London underground.  Even the film’s climax was produced at Pinewood and Longcross studios with background provided by Hankley Common.  Emotions ran very high on the sets at the studio during M’s death scene as Judi Dench climaxed her role of acting in seven Bond films over 17 years.  This film truly proved that a major motion picture could still be produced within a studio setting where time and money constraints of the project could be controlled to keep the nervous backers at Sony pictures happy.

Sam Mendes brought 25 years of directing theatre and film experience to the Bond film.  This Bond film was in good hands with a very experienced director.  Mendes brought in Thomas Newman to write the musical score.  Daniel Craig was assigned the role of Bond without question, back for his third film, with a desire to make a “Bond film with a capital B.”  This picture required a title song and Mendes asked Adele to be the artist to create the song.  Singer-songwriter Adele and producer Paul Epworth worked together and introduced the title song “Skyfall” to the world on James Bond Day, celebrating the golden anniversary of the Bond films.  This title song went on to win Best Original Song at the 85^th Academy Awards.  Director Sam Mendes put his full set of skills into producing an extended two and a half hour Bond film which was nominated for many awards, taking many prizes in the cinematography and music categories.

From the near bankruptcy, Skyfall became the highest-grossing film in the UK in 2012 and the highest-grossing film for Sony Pictures.  This film continued its legacy with Bond working for the British Crown under MI5.  There was even a segment shot with Daniel Craig and Queen Elizabeth II for the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in London providing a grand entrance for the monarch celebrating her diamond jubilee year during the Olympics as well as advertizing to the world the upcoming release of the film.  Skyfall also earned a Royal Premiere at Royal Albert Hall on October 23, 2012.  This film also introduced a Bond non-Imax film to the large Imax theatre screens as the film series looked forward to a continued future with the support of Sony Pictures.  Perhaps this was an indication that the next Bond film will be funded for the more expensive Imax production.