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oh i love a big budget

The black dress looks cute.

So the Walther PPK is back. Cool!

We paid a visit last week to the Chilean set of the forthcoming James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Filming took place at the Residencia of the Paranal Observatory, an astronomical observatory located outside of the port city of Antofagasta. Looking out the window of the plane as it made its descent into Antofagasta, the desert landscape appeared smooth with the occasional ripple of mountains and hills, like crests of waves across the ocean. But it's not until one actually beholds the Atacama Desert at ground level -- a region so arid that it's been reported that there was no rain for 40 years -- that the true majesty and otherworldly nature of the landscape becomes clear.

The Setting: Mad Max Meets Austin Powers on Mars

Although the two-hour bus ride over a largely unpaved, bumpy desert road -- cutting through a desolate, lifeless region more befitting Mad Max than 007 -- left more than one reporter with a quantum of sore ass, the journey was worth it to see such a place. Between the out-of this-world desert landscape and an awe-inspiring night sky that makes the cosmos appear close enough to touch, this reporter felt like he was the first man to land on Mars.

Or, at the very least, it's enough to convince even the most passionate NASA supporter that the moon landing and Mars probes were faked. Amidst all this natural grandeur it was easy to forget the even more surreal reason why you were even there to begin with: to hang out with James Bond for the day.

As the bus carrying the group of international journalists approached the road that would take us up to the Paranal Observatory, we drove past a handful of crew members grabbing a shot of silver propeller plane parked by a small roadside hanger. The plane, I would learn, will somehow feature into the action of Quantum of Solace.

Sitting atop Cerro Paranal (at some 8000+ feet above sea level) is the The Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is comprised of four multi-story telescopes that resemble castles inexplicably plunked on a mountaintop somewhere on Tatooine. We got the chance to tour this jaw-dropping scientific achievement, the interior of which resembled a nuclear missile silo or Cape Kennedy launch site as well as the kind of giant lair that James Bond or even Austin Powers -- "Engage the ludicrously huge telescope!" -- might find themselves embroiled in a climactic battle. That's why it was all the more shocking to learn that not only are the Bond filmmakers not filming inside or outside of the actual Observatory, the VLT itself won't even be seen in the background! It would be like filming at Mount Rushmore but not wanting to get the actual monument in the shot.

The Location: "To be destroyed in true Bond fashion"

Quantum of Solace is filming solely at the exterior of the Residencia, better known as the ESO Hotel. It is the four-story residence of the assembled scientists of the European Southern Observatory stationed there. Although it has been profiled in TV documentaries, Quantum of Solace marks the first time that this unique location has been utilized by a feature film. The crew, led by director Marc Forster and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, are not allowed to shoot there at night so as to not disturb the scientists' work; production must stop promptly at sundown. The exterior of the ESO Hotel will double in the Bond film as an eco-hotel owned and operated by the villainous Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric); the interior will be built back at Pinewood Studios where, as Barbara Broccoli informed me during dinner, it will be destroyed in true Bond fashion.



The set visit occurred roughly a week after the production had reached the halfway point and after six weeks of filming on location in Panama (Chile and Panama are doubling for Bolivia). The simple action scene we observed being filmed involved star Daniel Craig's stunt double Ben Cooke sprinting across the hotel's rooftop in hot pursuit of Greene. Bond dodges gunfire as he tries to capture the villain. We saw four rehearsals of the running scene and then one live take that was preceded by the assistant director's announcement to the crew, "No gunfire! Only glass smashing!"

I'm not really sure Gemma Arterton suits this hair...