Seebuhne Floating Stage Locked In For 'Quantum of Solace'
Wiener Zeitung report that the Seebühne floating stage has been locked in to appear in the next James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. Swiss production company Unicorn Media confirmed the rumours today.
Floating Stage with ‘Tosca’ Set (Image copyright Bregenz Festival, Karl Forster)
A crew of over 200 people, working with 1,500 extras, will shoot at the Bregenz location from 30 April to 9 May 2008.
007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson visited the location last summer with Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster. The trio attended a dress rehearsal of Giacomo Puccini’s opera, “Tosca”.
Broccoli said, “The Seebühne is really an extraordinary place, the scenery is spectacular.”
Wilson added, “What we saw in July 2007 was very impressive. James Bond movies have always taken the cinema audience to special locations – and the gigantic eye of the ‘Tosca’ scenery is absolutely unique.”
Forster said, “The ‘Tosca’ scenery with the huge blue eye fits the story of the new James Bond movie perfectly.”
James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, appeared equally enthusiastic about the location. “I’ve never been to Austria, and I’m very happy that my career is finally taking me there,” he said. “The Seebühne and the Bregenzer Festspiele are world famous, and we will spend more than a week there to shoot one of the movie’s most-important scenes.”
The site was first rumoured to appear in the film in July last year.
Meanwhile, FilmStew spoke to Jeffrey Wright, who reprises his role as Felix Leiter from Casino Royale, in this year’s Quantum of Solace.
Having just shot some scenes for the film in London before heading to Panama to continue filming, Wright sounded enthusiastic about returning to the franchise.
“We’re pretty deep into it, and there’s some good stuff for me,” the actor said. “The writers’ strike has impacted us a bit, so it may be that we, as actors, come up with some stuff that is not as of yet written on the page. So there may be some more interesting stuff to come.”
As for the title that has received much criticism in some parts of the media, Wright said it was fitting for the film. “It’s quite exotic, isn’t it? It’s a reference to one of Ian Fleming’s earlier pieces, I guess. So it’s exotic, but Bond is exotic.”
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