The opening sequence of the 24th James Bond film Spectre, currently filming in Mexico City, is set during the national Day Of The Dead festival, as these new pictures demonstrate. It will, claims long-time Bond producer Michael G Wilson, be "the biggest opening sequence we've ever done, maybe the biggest sequence we've ever done". Coming from a series which has previously sent its hero off a cliff on a motorbike to freefall into a crashing plane, that's no mean feat. Speaking from behind the scenes on location, where Empire has spent the weekend watching the Bondian shenanigans unfold, Wilson went on to say that the traditionally explosive pre-title sequence wasn't just going to be a massive on-screen event, but that it was also logistically huge. "The whole vision that Sam Mendes has come up with is very exciting and amazing," he told us. "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, and I think this is a much bigger operation."
The scene kicks off Spectre's story in predictably thrilling fashion, with 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. The newly-released stills above give a flavour of what to expect, including rooftop gun battles and the mysterious Estrella, played by the recently-cast Stephanie Sigman. Empire witnessed the scene being put together, and can testify that jaws will be dropped come Spectre's October 23 release date.
Filming will soon shift to Morocco and back to Pinewood, having already visited London, Rome and various delightful ski resorts in Austria. Our full Mexico set report will appear in a future issue, but until then why not have another squizz at the moody Spectre teaser trailer that was launched on Friday?
{Spectre Three New Stills Twitter}
Reporter: Neil Alcock