After Casino Royale blew audiences away with its refreshingly gritty tone— and Quantum of Solace disappointed Bond fans with a generic actioner that failed to live up to the franchise’s legendary name— Daniel Craig’s third outing as 007, Skyfall, was lauded by fans and critics alike. While it’s not a perfect movie, it is a perfect example of the Bond formula being done to its full potential using modern filmmaking techniques.
Sam Mendes bridged the gap between the Bourne-esque grit of Casino Royale and the outright lunacy of the Roger Moore era to craft the first Bond movie to top $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Production of Skyfall was delayed for almost nine months between 2010 and 2011, because MGM went bankrupt and its owners struggled to sell it off. Instead of finding another studio, Eon remained loyal to MGM and waited for it to get back on its feet.
The delay actually ended up helping the movie, because it gave the writers plenty of time to get the script right and also meant that the new release date would coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary.
Sam Mendes’ first choice for the role of Kincade was Sean Connery. However, the filmmakers ultimately decided that this would be too confusing for audiences and never even approached Connery for the part.
There’s a high chance that Connery would’ve turned down the role if he was offered it, because he previously refused to come out of retirement for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
While he was preparing to play Raoul Silva, who has since been branded one of James Bond's best-ever villains, Javier Bardem had the Skyfall script translated into his native Spanish to allow him to understand his character better. Sam Mendes appreciated Bardem’s commitment to the project, and it shows through in his chilling performance.
Sam Mendes considered Kevin Spacey for an undisclosed role in Skyfall, but he had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts. It’s believed that the role he was offered was that of Silva.
Funnily enough, Spacey’s character in American Beauty– which was also directed by Mendes– complains to his wife that he’s missing a James Bond marathon on TV in a rather prescient moment for the filmmaker.
The opening action sequence in Skyfall was shot in Istanbul and Adana. The finished cut of the scene only takes up about 12 minutes of screen time— but it took four months to prep, three months to rehearse, and two months to shoot. 200 crew members were brought over from England and an additional 200 local crew members were recruited in Turkey.
Coca-Cola was poured over the streets in Turkey to ensure the motorcycles wouldn’t slide. This wasn’t a product placement deal, although Skyfall did have a marketing deal with Coke Zero which wouldn’t have been sticky enough due to its lower sugar content.
Every Bond movie except for Skyfall has been shot on film. Skyfall is the only one to have been shot digitally, though it wouldn't prove to be the new standard. Spectre, the 007 movie released after Skyfall and again helmed by Sam Mendes, returned to more traditional 35mm film.
While on location, Daniel Craig bought a pair of gloves that he thought Bond would wear and Sam Mendes let him wear them in the Komodo dragon pit scene.
However, since Bond’s gun requires his fingerprints to work, it didn’t make sense that he would wear gloves. Unfortunately, this mistake was only spotted in the editing room. Using computers to digitally add bare hands over the gloves was determined to be cheaper than reshooting the entire scene.
For the scene in which Moneypenny shaves Bond, Naomie Harris was required to use a real razor blade, which obviously meant that she really needed to know what she was doing. So she spent six weeks training with a professional barber to learn how to shave someone, and then practiced on crew members before filming the scene.
During one of Javier Bardem’s first takes– for the scene in which Bond and M interrogate Silva at the MI6 headquarters– the actor broke character because he was so excited to be in a movie with Judi Dench and Daniel Craig. It's hard to imagine the intense Raoul Silva fanboying over celebrities.
Before Adele’s hit theme song for Skyfall, a bunch of Bond movie themes had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song: Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, and even the non-Eon parody Casino Royale. However, Adele’s theme was the first one to actually win the Oscar.
Adele was pregnant when she recorded the track. She said that her voice is so deep on the record because her pregnancy hormones had lowered her pitch. She’s been unable to recreate that low pitch since having the baby, so any live performances of the song sound a little off.
