‘Skyfall’ remains the most successful British film ever made… but its lead Daniel Craig reportedly nearly ended costing the James Bond team millions of dollars, and all because he wanted to wear his favourite gloves.
Film writer Charlie Lyne has recorded a series of Twitter videos, in which he relates the following, bizarre anecdote learnt, he claims, from a crew member of the record-breaking 23rd James Bond film.
Star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes were so worn down with expectation for this particular Bond film, set for release during the franchise’s 50th anniversary year, than when Daniel requested he wear his brand new leather gloves in a scene, Sam didn’t argue.
The scene was in the Macau casino, when Bond was followed, had a fight and fell off a bridge into a pit filled with dragons. Naturally. There, he had another fight with a villain who managed to steal Bond’s gun.
Three months later, during the edit, the penny dropped. James Bond’s gun was one of Q’s great inventions, a gun only 007’s fingerprints could trigger. Except, not if he was wearing gloves.
And sweating execs started calculating how much it would cost to re-shoot the entire scene, SANS gloves. The answer: millions of dollars.
Instead, some incredibly talented craftsman ended up diligently DIGITALLY PAINTING IN DANIEL CRAIG’S HANDS, so that the scene would show him able to work his gun.
Charlie Lyne shows the clip in his video as proof, explaining: “If you watch the scene now ... you can see that Bond has these ridiculously podgy hands because in every single frame he was wearing these thick leather gloves that have now been painted over with Craig-tone hands.”
Watch the clip above and see if you can spot the difference.
The risky move paid off. The film went on to accrue an almighty billion dollars plus at the global box office, and was well received as a fitting celebration of fifty years of Bond, gadgets and gloves notwithstanding.
Tap the first picture below to open the slideshow: