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A third accident has struck filming of the opening
car chase for "Quantum of Solace" on the banks of Lake
Garda in Italy...
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Production Diary (26)
24th April 2008
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A third accident rocked the production
of "Quantum of Solace" yesterday
(Wednesday 23rd April) as filming the car chase on the
banks of Lake Garda took a grave turn. A stuntman was seriously
injured in a car crash on a famously winding lakeside road
in northern Italy, a local official told AP.
A production
official said Aris Comninos, an experienced stunt driver
of an Alfa Romeo car, remained hospitalized in serious
condition following the accident Wednesday. 40 year-old
Mr Comninos, who was playing a villain chasing James
Bond's Aston
Martin DBS in an Alfa Romeo 159, was cut free from
the wreckage and suffered a fractured cranium during
the filming of a dramatic 15-minute car chase which opens
the
movie. A second stunt driver in the same car, Bruno Verdirosi,
also was injured but less seriously.
Right: The Alfa was left teetering off the
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"Filming with the second unit on 'Quantum of Solace' will
be suspended while the accident is investigated," the statement
said. It noted that neither director Marc
Forster, Daniel Craig nor any other cast members were at the location when the accident
occurred. The accident happened after a second Alfa Romeo, carrying
two dummies, was steered into a truck by remote control for the
scene. Mr Angelus's
car collided with a van belonging to one of the crew. As his
wrecked vehicle was towed away for examination by police, the
second Alfa Romeo remained where it had come to rest, dangling
over the edge of the road after smashing through a crash barrier.
It follows an incident earlier
this week when an Aston Martin DBS was plunged in the lake, and a smaller accident involving
the same two stuntmen on Monday. A week ago there was another
calamity when a man on a bicycle who had stopped by the set to
watch filming suffered a heart attack and died.
A spokesman for the town of Limone sul Garda,
where crew have been filming for the past two weeks, told local
press that the
Alfa Romeo collided with a lorry and then crashed into a wall
during a chase sequence involving a
truck
and Bond's
Aston Martin along the Gardesana, a curvy, two-lane lakeside
road with gorgeous panoramas and many tunnels.
A helicopter on standby during the filming flew the seriously
injured stunt driver to Borgo Trento hospital in Verona, where
he underwent surgery, said town spokesman Marco Girardi, who
also
was acting as a liaison
to the production company.
Above: The second Alfa Romeo that was remote controlled with
dummies inside |
"He is doing as well as can be expected," said a spokesman
for his family. An investigation has been launched into the accident
by the Italian authorities. Mr Comninos worked on a previous Bond
movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, and has also worked on Saving Private
Ryan and The Bourne Ultimatum, for which he won a Screen Actors
Guild Award.
"They chose this road because it is full of curves and
tunnels. It will give the film a lot of impact," Girardi
said. He said that the filming was scheduled to wrap up Wednesday,
and that they were in the final hours when the accident occurred.
The two stuntmen had already been to hospital after a previous
accident while they were shooting the same
scene.
One of them was given 15 stitches to his hand but was immediately
discharged, according to local Italian newspapers.
Above: The staging area containing the cars used during
the shoot
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According to The Telegraph, the stunt director of the film's
second unit, Gary Powell, was allegedly unhappy with the results
of
Saturday's
shoot and
had
ordered the sequence to be shot again on Wednesday. The Eon spokesman
said suggestions that the film was jinxed were "ridiculous".
He said Eon intended to wait for the results of the investigation.
On Thursday, the production company was packing
up equipment, including cars, to close the set. Workers and officials
refused
any comment to an Associated Press photographer.
