The World
Is Not Enough
25th Anniversary
1999–2024

With a final script now in place the producers turned to casting The World Is Not Enough. For the complex central role of Elektra King, French actress Sophie Marceau was chosen after Italian Monica Bellucci had tested opposite Colin Salmon [Charles Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002)] standing in as James Bond. Bellucci had earlier tested for the role of Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and finally secured the brief role of Lucia Sciarra in Spectre (2015). Scottish actor Robert Carlyle was cast as Victor Zokas a.k.a Renard, a former KGB agent turned high-tech terrorist who had previously kidnapped Elektra King. Originally written as a French-Polynesian insurance investigator, the nationality of Dr. Christmas Jones was changed following the casting of French actress Sophie Marceau as Elektra. Denise Richards secured the role after United Artists wanted a more traditional ‘Bond Girl’ to appeal to American audiences. The unusually named character was partly named after Travis Christmas Humphreys (1901-1983) – the prosecutor in the real-life Derek Bentley court case dramatized by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade in Let Him Have It (1991).

The casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear expert is one of the few elements of The World Is Not Enough (1999) that were criticized at the time of its release, and the film went on to become the first in the Bond series to win a Golden Raspberry when Richards was chosen as “Worst Supporting Actress” at the 1999 Razzie Awards. When challenged at the Los Angeles Press Junket ahead of the US release of The World Is Not Enough with the question: “How do you answer the criticism of people who say, “nuclear physicist, come on, jeez”?, Richards glibly remarked: “It’s Bond”.

After appearing in GoldenEye (1995), Robbie Coltrane reprised his role as Valentin Zukovsky, as did MI6 regulars Judi Dench as M; Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny; Michael Kitchen as M's Chief of Staff Bill Tanner [last seen in GoldenEye (1995)], and Colin Salmon as Robinson. The aforementioned Desmond Llewelyn played Q, with John Cleese brought on board as a new assistant (referred to as ‘R’ by Bond) who ultimately replaced the much-loved actor in Die Another Day (2002). Other small roles were played by English music producer and DJ Clifford Joseph Price – under his stage name ‘Goldie’ – as Valentin Zukovsky's gold-toothed and gold-haired bodyguard Bull (a.k.a. Mr Bullion), who is secretly working for Elektra and Renard; and Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, simply credited as “Cigar Girl” for her appearance in the lengthy pre-credit sequence. Cucinotta's role was originally slightly longer, and included a scene with Robert Carlyle that was ultimately deleted from the final cut of The World Is Not Enough (1999.)

Filming began on Monday January 11, on the MI6 headquarters sets at Pinewood – the first Bond film since The Living Daylights (1987) to be majorly based at the celebrated studios. Other scenes completed during the first three weeks of production were those on sets standing in for the MI6 briefing room at Thane Castle (where a portrait of original M Bernard Lee is seen). On January 19, 1999 Pierce Brosnan and Serena Scott Thomas (as Dr. Molly Warmflash) filmed the seduction scene where Bond is given a bogus clean bill of health following the injuries sustained following his fall on to the Millennium Dome at the end of the pre-credit sequence. The name Warmflash was not a nod to the suggestive character names dreamed up by author Ian Fleming, but simply a name seen on a store passed by screenwriter Bruce Feirstein on his way to the studio. The character was originally named Greatrex in the Purvis & Wade script, but changed when it was discovered there was a real doctor in London with that name! Shot on the same day was the brief scene of the interior of the candle-lit chapel where Elektra King assures the priest that the church is safe from demolition. Exteriors for the sequence would later be filmed in Spain (standing in for Azerbaijan). Production Designer Peter Lamont also returned to the James Bond series after a one film absence [James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Production Design], and it is his cleverly-detailed seemingly simple sets that sell the scene to the audience, who are generally unaware both shots weren’t in the same location.

From January 25, 1999 filming progressed on Pinewood’s ‘C’ Stage on the set of the King Pipeline control centre where Elektra kidnaps M. Three days later the principal cast moved to Pinewood’s exterior Paddock Tank to film the scenes of the helicopter attack on Valentin Zukovsky’s caviar factory at Baku, culminating with the destruction of Bond’s BMW Z8, which marked the end of a three-film product placement deal with the German car manufacturer. Michael Apted directed the actors, whilst second unit director Vic Armstrong oversaw those scenes involving stunts, special effects, and action. The sequence was a combination of live full-sized crane-suspended helicopters, model work and later computer enhancement in post-production. The digital work mostly involved the removal of wires, or adding details to shots rather than outright computer generated images. The only completely CGI shot in the film was the 3D model head of Renard (Robert Carlyle) showing the path of a bullet in his brain.

Vic Armstrong also filmed the snow scenes in Chamonix, France standing in for the Caucasus Mountains, where Bond and Elektra are pursued by Parahawks, with stunt co-ordinator Simon Crane skilfully arranging the action over four weeks from January 21, 1999. Meanwhile back at Pinewood, the main unit worked in the vast ‘007 Stage’ for the first two weeks of February, where the interior of the Kazakhstan Nuclear Test Chamber had been constructed.

CONTINUED

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