Bond 20 Production Heats In Cádiz, Spain
Cadiz in Spain has been mentioned as a Bond 20 filming location before now, however, details have now surfaced in the Spanish press about happenings in Cádiz , where filming will reportedly being in the first week of April.
To begin with it is important to highlight that the location of Cádiz will not actually appear in Bond 20. Rather it is being used to represent another country. That country is Possible Spoiler Warning (Highlight To Read) Cuba. From here on in I'll reply to the country as the 'other' country. Perhaps for political/safety reasons the production team can't actually conduct extensive work there. During the filming of The World Is Not Enough the political situation in Istanbul turned sour and as a result producers were forced to reduce filming plans to two days work which involved filming only minor external shots.
The Spanish media is mainly concentrating on the filming of James Bond's hotel. A bulding in Cádiz knows as the Bath of the Palm will be dressed up by the crew to appear as a hotel in the 'other' country. The external shot of Bond's hotel in GoldenEye is actually that of a hotel in London so such practice is commonplace in the Bond films. In reality, the Bath of the Palm is actually the Center Andalusian of Subaqueous Archaeology.
As a part of filming in Cádiz a warf will also be constructed near the historical Castle of San Sebastián which overlooks the sea. No word yet on exactly what the warf is required for.
San Sabastian in background where the warf will be constructed (Top)
Bath of the Palm (Bottom)
Extras have also been required by the producers who searched through about 2000 people who gathered at 6 in the morning to take test shots. The producers were seeking people with similair complexions to those of people from the 'other' country.
The question remains as to whether or not actors such as Pierce Brosnan will travel to Cádiz for filming, the Spanish media seems to think so. However, with Brosnan's injury forcing him out of action for two weeks it could seem sensible to cancel any un-necessary remote filming. One notion that supports this theory is information that we reported yesterday Possible Spoiler Warning (Highlight To Read) that a Hotel Room is being built as one of the sets at Pinewood Studio’s.. This indicates that only external filming is perhaps required. However, that said, one Spanish source has indicated that Brosnan will be needed for a shot of Bond driving down a local highway, the filming will require only an afternoons work.
Missing from reports, however, is news on the hospital that has been previously been rumoured as a set. Earlier rumours had indicated that while in Cuba Bond would actually be hospitalised. We’ll have to wait and see with that one.
If you'd like to discuss this news in all its confusion please use this thread of the Bond 20 Forums!
Thanks to 'Bender' and 'Mourning Becomes Electra' for helping with this article!