Bond movies are giant monsters, huge filmmaking machines, juggernauts that relentlessly roll on …” says Lee Tamahori.
The New Zealand director was the unanimous choice to direct Die Another Day, the 20th movie in the James Bond franchise. The offer came as a complete surprise to him.
“The film I was about to make fell apart and my agent called me to ask how I felt about doing the next Bond picture. It took me about five seconds to say yes because the opportunity would probably never come around again and you have to do something like this at least once in your life.
“I’ve always loved the Bond pictures. I don’t run out and chase them down, but I have watched every one. I thought Golden Eye revamped the series in a fantastic way and I got interested in 007 again. It was a new MI6/SAS assassin-type Bond as opposed to the smooth, suave sophisticated chauvinist of old. More than anything it was like a return to the high-end and much-loved action genre. They don’t get bigger or better than Bond so I thought it was my opportunity to do a massive action picture with outrageous stunts.
“My first impression of making a Bond picture was that you come in and merely press action buttons. Yet it wasn’t like that at all. First, I was asked what I thought of the script and [the producers and I] talked about it at length. I thought there were some fantastic moments in it but there were also some inherent weaknesses. It seemed to get lost in some labyrinth complexities. We soon discovered that we were on the same wavelength and we had some very easy script discussions.
“I don’t feel restrained or intimidated by the enormity of a Bond film. I knew what I was getting into. A Bond movie falls into a specific genre and you have to provide certain elements within it. You must respect the fact that it is essentially about girls, guns, gadgets and big action. Once you’ve got those in place you can do a lot of things within it. No matter how much you mix this pot up for the different age groups it still comes back to these same crowd-pleasing ingredients.
“But if this is all you serve up then you do a disservice to 40 years of the genre. I grew up with Bond as Cold War spy thrillers — From Russia with Love is my absolute favourite — moving into outrageousness with You Only Live Twice. Then it went into the Roger Moore years … and his movies rewrote the big action textbook.
“I am often asked if there is any additional pressure because this latest adventure is the 20th movie in the 40th anniversary year. My only pressure has been I’d better not mess it up. That’s pretty much it. For the first six months of the movie I had to focus on the action sequences because each little piece is so gigantic and requires a laser-like, finely tuned approach in terms of costs.
“You have to choose the cars so far in advance because 18 of them have to be built to certain specifications with rockets and ejector seats. It has to be a precise science. Once all that gets under way, you can’t stop it. You can only change details in a minor fashion. You can’t suddenly say, ‘Oh, I don’t like that’, because millions have been spent and numerous personnel have slaved and agonised over it for months.”
Lee goes on to talk about his leading cast members. “I wanted Halle [Berry] from the start,” he says. “The part of Jinx was originally written as a Latina type, mysterious and Hispanic. But I saw Swordfish and thought Halle gave a knockout performance in it. I wondered whether she would like to do the same thing again. We had this dynamic character, almost a female James Bond, and I said to everyone that Halle would be perfect. Halle was really up for it. We knew we had a window of opportunity before she began X-Men II so we went for it.
“Then it became important to make sure she wasn’t the same character from Swordfish so we gave her a less enigmatic and more dynamic persona. You know exactly who Jinx is in this adventure and we’ve given her a lot of kick-ass action and other extraordinary moments. She stepped up to the plate and did it. The fact that she was Oscar nominated meant she had all our blessings and all the luck in the world. Here we had two nominees [Dame Judi Dench being the other for Iris] going off to the ceremony and what could you say to either of them. But I was overjoyed when she won. She’s beautiful and she can act — and that’s a rare Hollywood combination.
“With regard to Pierce [Brosnan], you have to be careful about someone like him, because as an actor he looks to each director to basically reinvent the wheel. To be fair, everyone has their own valid point of view on this. If you let directors run away with themselves they could ruin the Bond character. You must be careful in what you allow Bond to do. He can’t be angst-ridden. Audiences would react violently to that idea. But, by the same token, you can’t just give the character the same old stuff because that would be routine. Mercifully, Pierce now knows all the quirks and foibles of the Bond character. It’s great when I say to him, ‘Look Pierce, I don’t know what bit of business to have Bond do in this scene’, and he says, ‘I know exactly what to do’ — and does it. Then he punches some guy and straightens his tie afterwards. Classic Bond.
“Other scenes do need help as here we are pushing Bond into a range he has never been in before. Half the script is Bond outside MI6 operating on his own. There’s betrayal going on. So, in certain scenes with dramatic weight, I’ve had to keep a close eye on Pierce. I’ve helped him push the envelope, try new things without it running too far away from Bond’s essence. Although we always want the series shaken up and reinvigorated, it cannot be done at the expense of what people inherently like about the character.”
How would he like this Bond to be remembered? “I’d like it to be bigger, bolder and somewhere they haven’t been before. It’s certainly the most expensive set ever, the most expensive sequence ever mounted … I keep being told that. ‘Does that mean it’s good?’ I say. ‘We’ll see,’ they say.
“I’ve pushed the window on every level. Massive action sequences that, if we pull it off, I’ll be very proud. The car chase used to read in the script, ‘They chase cars somewhere’. I went up to Iceland and saw this lake with icebergs floating in it, so I asked, ‘What happens if the lake freezes?’ And they said all the bergs would be in a fixed position. How long does it freeze for? Several months. Could we drive cars on it? Supposedly, but it’s never been done before. So that’s where that came from.
“The ice palace is the biggest Bond set built since the submarine dock on The Spy Who Loved Me. I wanted it to be the size of the Sydney Opera House. I went to Peter Lamont [production designer] and said, ‘What would happen if we raced cars in there and finished the lake chase inside the ice palace?’ He went away and did some modifications, but the end result is spectacular. A car chase is a car chase, but change the environment and it becomes something spectacular. That’s what the Bonds are famous for and I’ve done my utmost to continue that.
‘The fans will love the fact that I’ve jammed in dozens of references to the old movies — Halle’s Ursula Andress bikini, Thunderball jet packs, Goldfinger lasers, the book from which Bond’s name is taken [Birds of the West Indies] is seen lying around. I haven’t slavishly reproduced the old images as I don’t want to be accused of running out of ideas. But they are a loving homage to the old movies. Those who know them will spot them, for those who don’t it won’t matter to the overall enjoyment of the film.
“I can’t reveal too much about the high-tech element in the story, but it is based on fact and then turned into fiction. It’s a real Russian space programme that existed but then ran out of money and has now become our off-the-shelf villainous Star Wars project. Originally, it was all set in a giant box that I didn’t like. Then it became like a gauntlet on the arm. But that wasn’t exciting so I said, ‘Let’s add 100Â 000V, armour-plated, with defensive capabilities and laser-like killing abilities’ — a portable, functional battery-packed suit worn as a combat uniform that also controls the space weaponry.”
And what’s next? “I’d love to direct another Bond. Perhaps not the next one. I want to take a year off, then make a small picture and then let’s see. It has been a great filmmaking exercise. But I can now understand why people no longer direct four in a row.”