‘The Villa del Balbianello’

One of the locations in Italy that Eon will be using for shooting Casino Royale has been revealed, Italian newspaper Il Giorno reports. Eon and Sony have announced earlier this year that filming will take place in Italy, but no details and exact locations were given so far.

According to Italian media, one week of shooting will take place in late May in the ‘Villa del Balbianello’, which is located at the Lago di Como in the region of Lombardy (Northern Italy). The Villa has also been used for two recent Hollywood blockbuster movies, George Clooney’s Ocean’s Twelve and George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode 2 and Star Wars: Episode 3. It is also the place that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt chose to celebrate their marriage.

Locations scouts also had a look at the casino in the small town of Campione d’Italia, but it is not known whether shooting is actually going to take place there.

Casino Royale is the 21st James Bond film produced by franchise holders Eon Productions. The MGM/Columbia Pictures production began shooting in January and is due for release worldwide on 17 November 2006. Starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, it is currently being filmed in the Czech Republic, the Bahamas, Italy and the UK.

Discuss this news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond forum on the internet. Thanks to Marco Belletti for the alert.