James Bond Destinations

" When James Bond saved the world for the first time on the big screen, in 1962’s Dr. No, he was setting a cinematic standard: 007 would forever be a travelling secret agent. He reports for duty in London but is quickly dispatched to Jamaica, to fight evil in paradise. Since those sugary-sand beaches, subsequent films have taken the spy to an atlas’ worth of places around the globe, from soaring monasteries in Meteora and baroque Venetian palazzos to marble palaces in India and ancient Egyptian temples. While other productions rely on studio soundstages, the settings of the Bond motion pictures have included more than a hundred real-life locations over sixty years. In James Bond Destinations, readers are taken to many of the franchise’s iconic locations that feature in Bond’s jet-set, international itineraries. Each chapter is filled with insider insights and memorable scenes. Think Ursula Andress emerging from the Jamaican waves, Daniel Craig on a high-speed car chase through the streets of Rome and Roger Moore battling his nemesis on top of a Sugarloaf cable car in Rio. From the start, cinema-goers were spellbound, especially in the early to mid-1960s, when international travel was comparatively rare. On the silver screen, Bond then prompted audiences to dream of glamorous exciting vacations and established the franchise as a trusted concierge. Barbara Broccoli, the daughter of the original Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, says her father “wanted to take people out of their lives and transport them on an adventure to something magical.” As travel became more accessible, the Bond experience continued to stay ahead. “You have to find places that haven’t been seen, or you have to think of doing something spectacular in a well-known place, as we did with the chase through Rome in 2015’s Spectre,” says producer Michael G. Wilson. “The scene involved hundreds of blockers along two miles of main road to ensure no bystanders entered the shot,”