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Two major problems faced the "Moonraker" pre-production
team in Brazil a year before the film was set to
make its world premiere...
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Moonraker Plans Brazil Filming
6th February 2011
Back on July 20th, 1978, almost a year
before the film would open in cinemas around the world, the
production team on "Moonraker" had two major problems with
their plans to shoot on location in Brazil: lack of water and
lack of government support...
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Much of James Bond's next multi-million-dollar
spy movie will take place in Brazil - if nature and the
Brazilian government decide to cooperate. One of the main
scenes in Brazil, says English director Lewis Gilbert,
would be at Iguaza Falls on the Brazil-Paraguay border.
But a severe drought in southern Brazil
has left the normally spectacular falls a barren cliff
with only a tiny stream
of water.
Right: Some of the boat chase special effects were ultimately
completed in Florida, USA. |
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Gilbert, whose last James Bond movie "The
Spy Who Loved Me," grossed, he claims, more than $100 million,
says filming of the Brazilian part of "Moonraker" will
begin in January and that by that time, he hopes summer rains
will have filled the Parana River with water again. The other
problem the production company is facing is Brazilian bureaucracy.
The scripts of all movies filmed in Brazil must be approved in
advance by the government. So far, the "Moonraker" script
is languishing on some bureaucrat's desk in Brasilia.
"I don't think we'll have any real problem
with the Brazilians," Gilbert says. "This is the most
fantastic advertising that Brazil could have." He said that
Brazilian authorities apparently are concerned that foreign movie
producers might show the seamier side of Brazilian life. "But
they don't have to worry because we only show the beautiful
part," Gilbert says. "James Bond is a creature of luxury
and he doesn't hang around in favelas." Favelas are Brazilian
slums. Gilbert says tourism in Egypt jumped tremendously after "The
Spy Who Loved Me," much of which was filmed there.
Other scenes from "Moonraker" will
be filmed in Paris, Venice, San Francisco and Guatemala. THe
movie will have little in common with the Ian Fleming novel of
the same name, Gilbert says, except for Bond, to be played by
Roger Moore, beautiful girls
and the villain, Khugo (sic) Drax. As for plot, Gilbert would
only say it will deal with space,
noting the whole concept of space has changed since Fleming wrote
the book.
Carnival scenes from Rio's famous pre-Lenten
celebration were filmed earlier this year. "We'll use them
for backdrops and re-create our own carnival for Bond," Gilbert
says. The famous Bond escapades are a "top secret" but
Gilbert promises they will "top anything up to now." Cost
of the production will be considerably more than the $15 million
the previous Bond movie cost, Gilbert says. It will be
Gilbert's third Bond movie and his 31st film.
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