Bond producer Michael G. Wilson is making a bold claim telling Empire the opening sequence to the new James Bond movie Spectre, which takes place during the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico, will be “the biggest opening sequence we’ve ever done, maybe the biggest sequence we’ve ever done”.
“The whole vision that [director] Sam Mendes has come up with is very exciting and amazing,” Wilson added. “We’ve got 1500 extras in Day of the Dead costumes and make up and we’ve occupied the centre of Mexico City for days. The only thing that’s come close to it was putting on the carnival in Rio in Moonraker [see video], and I think this is a much bigger operation.”
So what does this opening entail? Well, according to Empire, we’ll get “exploding buildings, a pulse-quickening foot chase through the Day Of The Dead parade and a fight inside a helicopter, which will then perform what promises to be one of the most spectacular stunts in Bond history.”
In a separate interview with Coming Soon, Wilson also mentioned the extras, adding, “Those 1500 extras get duplicated around the square, so it’ll be 10,000 people.”
Coming Soon did, however, ask about the incentives the production received from Mexico, $20 million being the reported number, and the changes to the script that reportedly took place. Co-producer Barbara Broccoli responded to that saying, “The script had been in existence for a long time. The Mexican part had always looked good. I don’t know why that became an issue, because it wasn’t an issue for us. We’re very happy to be here. In the script it was always the Day of the Dead and we’ve had tremendous cooperation from the departments and more importantly the public.”
Filming continues for two more months as the production has already visited Austria, Rome and Mexico and still has Morocco and then Pinewood Studios in London before wrapping up. Mendes will have a few months from that point to put the final touches on the film, which hits theaters on November 6.
Just below are more pictures from the Day of the Dead sequence as well as the film’s first trailer.
