Which James Bond movies were filmed in Thailand?
As a globetrotting spy saga, the James Bond franchise is obligated to touch down in multiple different countries; otherwise, it doesn’t really feel like a 007 adventure at all.
It wouldn’t be the same if MI6’s finest spent the entirety of his latest world-saving jaunt pottering around London trying to avert disaster on a global scale because audiences have spent the last six decades being conditioned to expect the character to jet off across the planet to avert catastrophe.
The most recent instalment, Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time to Die, was indicative of the brand’s desire to continue traversing the map: at various points, the production touched down in Norway’s Langvann Lake, the Italian town of Gravina in Puglia, Jamaica’s Port Antonio, Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park, and the Faroe Islands’ outpost of Kalsoy.
Only two Bond movies were filmed in Thailand, and they went about it in markedly different ways. The first was Roger Moore’s second outing in 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun, where the majority of principal photography took place. Using the island of Ko Khao Phing Kan as the base of operations for Christopher Lee’s villainous Francisco Scaramanga, it’s spent the last half a century reaping the continued benefits of its association with 007.
The towering rock formation of nearby Ko Ta Pu, which featured prominently in The Man with the Golden Gun, was swiftly and colloquially rebranded as ‘James Bond Island’, where it quickly became a tourist hotspot. As for the second Bond flick to visit Thailand, the crew only went there as a matter of necessity.
Pierce Brosnan’s second outing, Tomorrow Never Dies, originally planned on becoming the first major production to shoot on location in Ho Chi Minh City since the Vietnam War, only for the visa to be revoked by the country’s current Prime Minister, which forced a last-minute shift to Bangkok to double as Vietnam’s most populated city.
Where was the first James Bond movie filmed?
While the first James Bond movie didn’t plant a flag for the franchise’s jet-setting future, Dr No still set up shop a long way away from the United Kingdom for the bulk of its on-location shooting.
The first day of shooting on Sean Connery’s first day on set in the first Bond film began at Palisaodes Airport in the Jamaican capital of Kingston, with the crew paying tribute to the character’s creator by filming in close proximity to author Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye estate, which allowed him to make regular visits to see if his literary hero was in good hands.
A little over a month later, Dr No returned to home shores to capture interiors at Pinewood Studios, which would quickly become an integral part of the 007 process.
Which studio houses the 007 Stage?
Instead of taking up mountains of space at Pinewood Studios every time a new Bond movie rolled around, production designer Ken Adams suggested that it would make a lot of sense for the franchise to have its own purpose-built soundstage built on the premises.
The Spy Who Loved Me was the first to shoot on the stage in 1976, although it would be a short-lived structure after it was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1984 towards the end of production of Ridley Scott’s fantasy epic Legend.
However, it was rebuilt and reopened by the end of the following year under the official designation of the Albert R Broccoli 007 Stage. After several expansions and another unfortunate fire, it’s currently the largest soundstage in Europe and has played host to countless blockbuster films, as well as almost every Bond flick to have been made since.
