The World
Is Not Enough
25th Anniversary
1999–2024

In mid-February the first unit travelled to Bilbao in Spain to film scenes near the Guggenheim Museum, where Bond makes his escape from a fourth-floor balcony as part of the pre-credit sequence. The crew then returned to Pinewood from February 19 – March 12, 1999 to complete the Bilbao Bank interiors, scenes in Elektra’s bedroom, and those where M is imprisoned in Istanbul. Robert Carlyle filmed his introduction as Renard on March 3rd with the Pinewood Gardens doubling for Baku, Azerbaijan, where his character holds scalding rocks from ‘The Devil's Breath’ to show he is impervious to pain. Pierce Brosnan and Sophie Marceau then travelled to Chamonix in mid-March where their scenes were filmed to be intercut with the action already captured by the second unit, with some of the Parahawks footage enhanced later by visual effects supervisor Mara Bryan and her team.

Footage for what would become the longest pre-title sequence to date was captured on London’s River Thames over five weeks from March 29 – May 7, 1999 – with Bond pursuing the ‘Cigar Girl’s’ Sunseeker yacht in the prototype Q Boat. The majority of the action and stunts were performed for real, with Pierce Brosnan visibly driving the Q Boat in a lot of the close-ups, adding a great deal of realism to the sequence in the same way it had for Roger Moore in the speedboat chase in Live And Let Die (1973). The spectacular barrel roll performed by stuntman Gary Powell on April 16, 1999 at Millwall Docks, was achieved by firing air mortars attached to the side of the boat rather than using an underwater ramp. Whilst filming continued in London, a small third unit captured shots in Istanbul in late March-early April, including Maiden’s Tower, and the exteriors of Elektra’s villa, which was filmed at Küçüksu Pavilion on The Bosphorus. Political unrest in the region had prevented a lot of location filming in Turkey requiring many shots to be remounted in Spain; however, Pierce Brosnan and Sophie Marceau did briefly travel to Azerbaijan to shoot establishing shots of the Bibi-Heybat Oil Field near Baku, which doubled as the King Oil Field.

At the end of April 1999 the production filmed on location in England, with Luton Hoo country house in Bedfordshire used for the interiors of Zukovsky’s office and entrance hall of Elektra’s Istanbul villa. The stately home had earlier served as a location in Never Say Never Again (1983) doubling as Shrublands Health Club. Halton House, at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire, was used for the interiors and exterior establishing shot of Zukovsky’s L’Or Noir casino in Baku, and where co-producer Michael G. Wilson make his cameo appearance as one of the employees in the scene where Elektra King loses $1-million playing Blackjack.

The World Is Not Enough was previewed at a Multiplex cinema in Reading, Berkshire on August 3, 1999 where a new sound system had been installed especially for the screening. The preview audience reaction was mixed, leaving Director Michael Apted and Editor Jim Clark disappointed. Changes were made, including restoring the Thames river chase into the pre-credit sequence as it had been in Purvis & Wade’s first draft of the screenplay. A near final cut was then sent to the USA for the Motion Picture Association of America ratings board to view. This resulted in several cuts in female nudity being made before the final edit and sound mix was completed. 3,000 prints were produced for UK distribution, with a further 4,000 created for the USA. The World Is Not Enough then had its World Premiere in Los Angeles at the Fox Bruin Theatre in Westwood on November 8, 1999, and went on to gross $35.5-million in North America over its opening weekend. A European Charity Premiere followed two weeks later at London’s ODEON Leicester Square on November 22, 1999. Like its predecessor Tomorrow Never Dies, no members of the Royal family attended this premiere. Special advance previews of The World Is Not Enough were held at many cinemas on Thursday November 25, 1999, including the ODEON Marble Arch where the film then played for 12 weeks. After eight weeks at the ODEON Leicester Square, The World Is Not Enough transferred to the adjoining ODEON Mezzanine for a further nine weeks from Friday January 14, 2000.

Pierce Brosnan’s third James Bond film went on to gross of $350-million worldwide, making it the most successful of the series at that point. The film marked the end of Pierce Brosnan’s original three-film contract, which by this time had made over $1-billion at the worldwide box-office. During the making of The World Is Not Enough EON Productions were still embroiled in legal disputes with Kevin McClory, who continued attempts to mount other adaptations of THUNDERBALL, including Warhead 2000 A.D., which was to be made by SONY Pictures. MGM/UA took legal action against SONY and McClory in the United States to prevent the film going into production. On March 30, 1999 the two studios finally resolved the dispute. Under the terms of the agreement SONY Pictures paid MGM $5-million to settle the lawsuit, and in return MGM paid SONY Pictures $10-million (and their rights to Spider-Man) in exchange for the rights to CASINO ROYALE (which was produced at Columbia Pictures, now part of SONY) and for all international rights to the James Bond films. This effectively put an end to Kevin McClory’s attempts to make another James Bond film, and after his death in 2006 EON Productions also acquired all rights he had in the THUNDERBALL property. With CASINO ROYALE now available to EON Productions and Pierce Brosnan agreeing to make a fourth James Bond film, the actor was asked at the Los Angeles Press Junket for The World Is Not Enough (1999) if he wanted to do Casino Royale next. Brosnan responded: “It would be good if legally they can get it together. Make amends, put on paper. It would be wonderful.” However, EON Productions had other ideas and put plans to film Ian Fleming’s debut novel on hold, as it was felt not the right time to present the story with the current James Bond actor as the lead. Die Another Day then became the 20th James Bond film, based on an original screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (the only one of their seven 007 films to solely bear their writing credit). The first film of the new millennium went on to become the most successful to date, despite critics and hard-core fans reacting negatively to the outrageous storyline and often substandard special effects.

As The World Is Not Enough celebrates its silver anniversary, it is perhaps the film that should have seen the end of Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as James Bond – as like Goldfinger (1964) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) before it [and Skyfall (2012) that followed] – marked the distillation of that actor’s personification of Ian Fleming’s secret agent. EON Productions and their talented crew of creative and technical experts consolidated what had been seen in the first two films from each actor, and created a satisfying third instalment, which was arguably the best – or even definitive film from that incarnation of James Bond. The World Is Not Enough is one of a handful of James Bond films that acknowledges the time period in which the story takes place, with direct references to the (ultimately non-existent) ‘Millennium Bug’ and inclusion of London’s Millennium Dome, and as such possibly dates it more than other entries in the series. Pierce Brosnan’s penultimate James Bond film can now be seen as a brave entry for the franchise, and one which took a risk on new writers who were daring enough to take the lead character in a new direction in terms of emotional depth, and in its depiction of female characters (Christmas Jones and the casting of Denise Richards notwithstanding!). The action sequences stand up well 25 years later, with the use of digital enhancements practically invisible compared with that which immediately followed. The World Is Not Enough easily lives up to the old adage, “Third Time’s The Charm!”

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