Casino Royale on-set report and pictures from Venice filming

24-Jun-2006 • Casino Royale

An Italian film fansite has posted a location report from the filming of the forthcoming James Bond film Casino Royale in Venice, Italy.

The report from the set extra also contains candid photos, including Daniel Craig and director Martin Campbell on location.

Day One: I arrive at Mondadori (behind San Marco) at 5.15. We are met by the costume designers to check everything is okay (nothing red is allowed on set, the colour red doesn't render well on film). We get to San Marco by 6; there's four hundred of us and we take up half the square. We start walking, back and forth along the same 6 ft. path, and then "CUT! Everybody in position!", and back you go to your starting point. Our dear 007 (Daniel Craig, the only major cast member on set that day) dashes across half of San Marco - half of Venice actually - chasing the red skirt of the current Bond Girl (Eva Green: hers was the only red dress allowed). Then the infamous bank scene was shot: in a corner of the square, right under the "Procuratie Nuove" (Houses of the Procurators), a fake bank had been built - complete with cashpoints. It was hilarious to watch unsuspecting tourists trying to get money out of them! I couldn't quite figure out what happens in this scene; people who were inside the "bank" possibly understood the goings-on a little better than I did. All I was able to see was the mad rush and the hot pursuit under the arcades. We were kept there until 7.30 pm, filming mass scenes and, at the end, the moment when Daniel Craig meets Eva Green, in a "calle" [= narrow street] that leads onto the square, where gondolas are docked.

Day Two: We spent the whole day in Campo San Barnaba (remember the place where Indiana Jones came out of the catacombs under Venice in "The Last Crusade"? Yep, just there). Eva Green was there as well; she walked from the bridge to the Campo [small square], sporting the same red dress as the day before and holding a briefcase made of metal; then she walked along a Calle, down to the "Toletta" bookstore. That was all.

Day Three: Nothing more, nothing less. Another Calle, Eva Green (plus red dress, plus briefcase) strutting down the street again. We had to reshoot the Green/Craig meeting in San Marco. I know they also filmed a scene where extras had to look in astonishment at a building collapsing, and the water in the canal boiling. Then a gun battle featuring the Bad Guy's minions: this was filmed at the Conservatorio [= academy of music] Benedetto Marcello. Another couple of scenes were shot - but without any principal cast members - in the Mercato/Rialto area.