Aston Martin’s Unique Bond
Originally slated for release this week – we take you inside No Time To Die.
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The plan is laid bare in all its terrifying simplicity.
Take a classic 1960s Aston Martin DB5, drive along an absurdly narrow Italian alley. Pull the specially made handbrake at appropriate moment. Drift said DB5 into historic square at 145km/h. Do not kill one’s self, or, more importantly, damage the car. Repeat 20 or 30 times, if necessary, until perfection is achieved.
Mark Higgins is a man more than happy to oblige the above decree of ‘management’. As stunt driver and Daniel Craig body-double on the new 007 movie No Time To Die, that’s what he’s paid the big (ish) bucks to do. But first – and no childish sniggering at the back, please – he needs some coke. Otherwise there’s a real possibility that, on the notoriously slippery, dust-coated streets of Matera, the DB5 will simply slide into crunchy oblivion, taking out an ancient church along the way.
“Before filming, we spray the roads with Coca-Cola,” explains Higgins, a three-time British rally champion. “The difference it makes is amazing, increasing grip levels by about 70 per cent. All in all, we’ve spent £70,000 (around $135,000) on Coke for the roads.”
With his face dotted by ‘motion capture’ spots – a digital system that allows the special effects team to later overlay Daniel Craig’s slightly more famous visage – Higgins reveals other tricks used on No Time To Die; such as the minuscule ‘pods’ fixed to the cars’ roofs, allowing the stunt driver to sit up-top and take control of the vehicle while the talent sits below, pretending to drive.
“It’s more like driving a computer game,” Higgins says of this high-riding role. “The steering’s not direct and you feel like you’re going to roll over on every corner.”
Florence has its art and Rome, its architecture. But little-known Matera is proper fantasy Italy – the Europe that Australians pine for on cold, mid-winter days. It’s packed with impossibly thin, undulating cobbled streets; churches capable of melting the flintiest of atheist hearts; simple, seemingly shabby terraces a tenth of the size of a Sydney apartment yet with ten times the soul; buildings, pavements, façades, all brushed with a soft, sandstone palette. And that’s just the ‘newer’ bit.
The old, old part – and the reason Matera’s been granted UNESCO World Heritage Site bragging rights – has been inhabited for more than 12,000 years, and now lures savvy tourists who swoon over its tiny cave dwellings.
When Robb Report arrives on a warm Mediterranean morning for an exclusive insight into filming and how they come
to produce those epic car chases, it’s clear Matera’s days of flying under the radar are numbered.
The area around Piazza San Giovanni, where today’s action will be filmed, has been cordoned off to a perimeter of a few hundred metres – an assortment of Bond groupies and sightseers are gathered at one of the entry points.
To minimise production leaks, residents within the security zone have all signed non-disclosure agreements while Eon Productions, the British company behind the Bond series, has rented every apartment in the piazza for the duration of filming. The less beady iPhone eyes, the better. And hang the expense.
Nevertheless, cracks are appearing in this ring of security. Crystal-clear videos of car-chase scenes, captured in various parts of the old town during the previous three weeks have gone viral on social media, thickening the air of secrecy around what’s already one of the world’s most gossip-piquing movie sagas.
Little surprise, then, that we’re quickly ushered through security, onto the balcony of a three-storey house overlooking the piazza, and then politely asked not to wave our mobiles anywhere near the action taking place below. Fail to comply and we’ll be shot with poisoned umbrella darts. Maybe.
“This is the most challenging city I’ve worked in,” says stunt coordinator Lee Morrison, this his fifth Bond film. He designed and wrote all the car-chase sequences for No Time To Die.
“Matera is such an ancient place. I’ve had to drive around every location at the same speed I’m asking my stunt guys to do, thinking, ‘right, I need to protect that wall with a steel plate or some K-rail [temporary concrete barriers]’. We’ve had to go through so many requirements to get permission to film, but the local council has been very gracious with us.”
Morrison proceeds to outline today’s shoot schedule – first, a scene in which Bond and his love-interest, Madeleine Swann (French actress Léa Seydoux), are cornered in his DB5 by armed villains; in the afternoon, time permitting, the aforementioned high-speed, drifting-into-the-piazza sequence.
“You need stunt drivers with the ability to be extremely precise,” adds Morrison, “who understand what the camera is doing. You can get the fastest, most technical driver in the world, but they don’t understand they’ve only got four seconds to tell a story.”
As yet, no Coca-Cola is being poured onto the sandstone paving stones beneath us in the piazza, but other forms of movie sorcery are being summoned.
A posse of badly barbered Eurotrash villains are pointing machine guns at Bond’s DB5; sparks ping off the silver bodywork, a sight to force vicarious pain on any vintage-car fan. Except this is movie-land – a celluloid house of mirrors. Real bullets wouldn’t create those kind of sparks, so, instead, the special effects team use ‘squibs’, pellets of gunpowder that simulate ammunition.
The bad guys aren’t even firing them – that’s done by marksmen positioned out of camera shot. As for the bullet holes on the Aston’s flank and windscreen? Mere pieces of art.
When audiences watch Bond escape his foes by engaging the DB5’s headlamp-concealed Gatling guns (while performing a donut, no less), they’ll be oblivious to the analogue mechanics enabling this incredible piece of theatre – how the DB5 is laden with scaffolding poles and ropes to secure the huge IMAX camera filming the car point-of-view sequences; or how, to mimic the donut, four burly crew grab hold of the scaffolding and whirl the DB5 through 360 degrees.
All this time, effort, money, and Coca-Cola, for what will likely amount to about 10 to 15 seconds of useable footage when the movie is finally released to international audiences on April 2nd.
General plot details are being kept strictly under wraps (in a fortified nuclear bunker five kilometres beneath producer Barbara Broccoli’s mansion, most likely).
At the time of writing, only the bare bones have been made public: 007 puts retirement on ice to help locate a kidnapped scientist, only to find himself in the crosshairs of a deranged terrorist, played by Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody). What moviegoers can be certain of are heart-pumping fighting scenes, vaguely titillating nudity and loveable cheesy quips. All the addictive, basic foodstuff that’s helped the Bond universe gross around $16 billion since Ian Fleming’s literary spy made the leap from paper to film reel in 1962’s Dr No.
“The franchise survives because it loops all the things you like about Bond,” says second unit director Alexander Witt, known for his work on The Bourne Identity and Gladiator, among others. “But some people go just to see the cars.”
The roll-call of Bond rides is indeed deeply etched in both movie and automotive annals – from the sublime (the red Mercury Cougar XR7 in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) to the ridiculous (the Lotus Esprit half-car, half-submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me). But no car, no marque, can touch Aston Martin for pure Bond-ness.
Perhaps that’s why the latest movie comes across as an unabashed, pan-generational homage to the timelessly cool British brand, featuring a 1980s Vantage V8, the new DBS Superleggera, a sneak preview of the Valhalla hypercar (slated for showrooms in 2021) and, of course, the most iconic Bond car of them all, the DB5, first driven by Sean Connery in 1964’s Goldfinger.
In another stroke of movie cunning, the DB5 currently being filmed isn’t the only one of its kind. Eight DB5s have been assigned to No Time To Die, all built from the ground up by Aston Martin’s special-projects division, all completely driveable, all engineered to cope with the rigours of particular scenes, and all with a non-original-spec 268kW under the hood. The majority of them are being stored in the courtyard of a former convent just off the piazza, under the proud, watchful eye of the head of stunt cars, Neil Layton. “The challenge here in Matera is you’ve got five or six different road surfaces that you’re adjusting to all the time,” says Layton. “Once we receive the cars, we test, we rehearse and then we dial in each Aston for a specific scene.”
He singles out a DB5 only metres from where he’s standing. Its flank is scarred by an ugly crater, the result of being deliberately T-boned by a Range Rover Classic during recent filming. “It was painful to watch,” says Layton. “But we’ve done our bit by reinforcing the Aston inside so it can take multiple hits. But if you look at that Rangey…”
No amount of technical expertise, no amount of money (the No Time To Die budget around $366 million) can guarantee perfection on any set, as evidenced when the DB5’s Gatling guns have an unexplained hissy fit and spill hundreds of bullets onto the piazza. “Humans are involved, and humans make errors,” offers Higgins. “Film sets are a living thing, so stuff can happen.”
And it continues to do so. Throughout the afternoon, dark storm clouds dump their watery loads over Matera, calling a 30-minute halt to filming with each downpour. Eventually, we’re told by an Eon representative that the much-awaited drifting scene has been postponed until the next day – the daylight fading too fast for the lighting department’s liking.
The DB5 is duly wheeled into the courtyard for the night, the stunt boys stood down. And, for now at least, the Coca-Cola truck remains on stand-by.
After having its initial April 8 release date pushed back, No Time To Die is expected in cinemas 12 November 2020; astonmartin.com
This story comes from our latest Autumn 2020 issue. To purchase a copy or to sign up to an annual subscription of Robb Report Australia & New Zealand click here. To stay in touch with all the latest news click here.
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8 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Aston Martin
The British sports car company is most famous as the vehicle of choice for James Bond, but Aston Martin has an interesting history beyond 007.
Aston Martin will forever be associated with James Bond, ever since everyone’s favourite spy took delivery of his signature silver DB5 in the 1964 film Goldfinger. But there’s a lot more to the history of this famed British sports car brand beyond its association with the fictional British Secret Service agent.
Let’s dive into the long and colourful history of Aston Martin.
The origin of the Aston Martin name
The company that would become Aston Martin started out as a car dealership. In 1912, Englishmen Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin partnered to sell cars, but soon after they decided to build their own models. Their first prototype debuted in 1915, named in honour of Martin, a racing driver, and his favourite racing venue, Aston Hills. Thus, the name Aston Martin was born.
A speed-demon co-founder banned from driving
Aston Martin co-founder Lionel Martin wasn’t just a keen racing driver—he was an all-out speed demon. As a student, Martin won numerous gruelling bicycle racing records, including riding nearly the full width of England in one 22-hour stretch. He competed in motorcycle and sidecar races and automotive hillclimb competitions. It seems he also brought that need for speed to the public roadways: In 1909, having neglected to pay a previous speeding fine, Martin was caught driving 41.5 km/ph in London and was banned from driving for two years—during which he set yet another cross-country bicycle record.
A tractor company takes over
The years after World War I were tumultuous for Aston Martin, with financial difficulties and numerous takeovers. In 1947, Aston Martin went up for sale and was purchased by David Brown Limited, a company that specialised in farm tractors and industrial gears. Sir David Brown, grandson of the company’s founder, was a lifelong car enthusiast and racer, having built his own competition cars while working as an engineer at the family company. The first car built by Aston Martin after this takeover was called the DB1, named after the tractor company (and the man) that had saved the carmaker.
An indirect connection to Bentley
Around the same time that Sir David Brown took over Aston Martin, he purchased another struggling British carmaker, Lagonda. The company was developing a revolutionary twin-cam six-cylinder engine called the LB6, and Sir David wanted the engine for his new line of Aston Martin sports cars. The Lagonda engine had been designed by none other than W.O. Bentley—the man who co-founded Bentley Motors, who had long since been pushed out of the company bearing his name.
The history of the DB Series
Aston Martin built seven vehicles named in honour of owner Sir David Brown: The DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4, DB5, DB6, and the combo-breaker DBS all bore Sir David’s initials. In 1972, Sir David sold the car company, and the new owners ended the DB series of vehicles, but the name was revived in 1993 with the DB7 in honour of Sir David—who himself was given an honorary position at the company that same year.
Bond, James Bond
Of course, the most famous Aston Martin of them all is the DB5. Just over 1,000 examples were built between 1963 and 1965, but millions worldwide know this as the James Bond car. In the books, author Ian Fleming had specified an earlier Aston Martin DB Mark III as Bond’s car. Still, the DB5 was introduced in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger, equipped with gadgets including machine guns, smoke screens, oil slicks, an ejector seat, and rotating license plates. Bond has driven several Aston Martin models over the years, including a V8 Vantage, a V12 Vanquish, and two DBS models, but the original DB5 will always be considered the quintessential Bond car.
The angular years
Today, the Aston Martin badge is most closely associated with swooping, evocatively curvy car designs, but in the 1970s the company was obsessed with angular, wedge-shaped designs. The trend began in 1976 with the Aston Martin Lagonda, a shockingly unconventional four-door luxury sedan with “folded-paper” body styling and the world’s first all-digital instrument panel. The Lagonda’s styling was further evolved in 1979 with the Bulldog, a radical concept car with gullwing doors and a sharply pointed nose. The Bulldog was meant to become the fastest road car on earth, but the project was abandoned before production could begin.
For Bond’s eyes only
While most of James Bond’s Aston Martins have been commercially available to anyone who could afford one, the DB10 seen in the 2015 film Spectre was exclusive to 007. As Aston Martin executive Marek Reichman explained to Variety, director Sam Mendes, producer Barbara Broccoli, and Bond star Daniel Craig were touring Aston Martin’s design studios when they saw a concept sketch on the wall. The Bond team insisted that this should be 007’s next car, and Aston Martin spent the next six months furiously working to turn the drawing into a real-world car. The DB10 was unveiled during the launch of the film Spectre, and eight of the 10 examples built were featured in the movie, with the remaining two used for promotional appearances.
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What Venice’s New Tourist Tax Means for Your Next Trip
The Italian city will now charge visitors an entry fee during peak season.
Visiting the Floating City just got a bit more expensive.
Venice is officially the first metropolis in the world to start implementing a day-trip fee in an effort to help the Italian hot spot combat overtourism during peak season, The Associated Press reported. The new program, which went into effect, requires travellers to cough up roughly €5 (about $AUD8.50) per person before they can explore the city’s canals and historic sites. Back in January, Venice also announced that starting in June, it would cap the size of tourist groups to 25 people and prohibit loudspeakers in the city centre and the islands of Murano, Burano, and Torcello.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’ Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official, told AP News. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
During this trial phase, the fee only applies to the 29 days deemed the busiest—between April 25 and July 14—and tickets will remain valid from 8:30 am to 4 pm. Visitors under 14 years of age will be allowed in free of charge in addition to guests with hotel reservations. However, the latter must apply online beforehand to request an exemption. Day-trippers can also pre-pay for tickets online via the city’s official tourism site or snap them up in person at the Santa Lucia train station.
“With courage and great humility, we are introducing this system because we want to give a future to Venice and leave this heritage of humanity to future generations,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter) regarding the city’s much-talked-about entry fee.
Despite the mayor’s backing, it’s apparent that residents weren’t totally pleased with the program. The regulation led to protests and riots outside of the train station, The Independent reported. “We are against this measure because it will do nothing to stop overtourism,” resident Cristina Romieri told the outlet. “Moreover, it is such a complex regulation with so many exceptions that it will also be difficult to enforce it.”
While Venice is the first city to carry out the new day-tripper fee, several other European locales have introduced or raised tourist taxes to fend off large crowds and boost the local economy. Most recently, Barcelona increased its city-wide tourist tax. Similarly, you’ll have to pay an extra “climate crisis resilience” tax if you plan on visiting Greece that will fund the country’s disaster recovery projects.
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Omega Reveals a New Speedmaster Ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics
Your first look at the new Speedmaster Chronoscope, designed in the colour theme of the Paris Olympics.
The starters are on the blocks, and with less than 100 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega was bound to release something spectacular to mark its bragging rights as the official timekeeper for the Summer Games. Enter the new 43mm Speedmaster Chronoscope, available in new colourways—gold, black, and white—in line with the colour theme of the Olympic Games in Paris this July.
So, what do we get in this nicely-wrapped, Olympics-inspired package? Technically, there are four new podium-worthy iterations of the iconic Speedmaster.
The new versions present handsomely in stainless steel or 18K Moonshine Gold—the brand’s proprietary yellow gold known for its enduring shine. The steel version has an anodised aluminium bezel and a stainless steel bracelet or vintage-inspired perforated leather strap. The Moonshine Gold iteration boasts a ceramic bezel; it will most likely appease Speedy collectors, particularly those with an affinity for Omega’s long-standing role as stewards of the Olympic Games.
Notably, each watch bears an attractive white opaline dial; the background to three dark grey timing scales in a 1940s “snail” design. Of course, this Speedmaster Chronoscope is special in its own right. For the most part, the overall look of the Speedmaster has remained true to its 1957 origins. This Speedmaster, however, adopts Omega’s Chronoscope design from 2021, including the storied tachymeter scale, along with a telemeter, and pulsometer scale—essentially, three different measurements on the wrist.
While the technical nature of this timepiece won’t interest some, others will revel in its theatrics. Turn over each timepiece, and instead of a transparent crystal caseback, there is a stamped medallion featuring a mirror-polished Paris 2024 logo, along with “Paris 2024” and the Olympic Rings—a subtle nod to this year’s games.
Powering this Olympiad offering—and ensuring the greatest level of accuracy—is the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 and 9909, certified by METAS.
A Speedmaster to commemorate the Olympic Games was as sure a bet as Mondo Deplantis winning gold in the men’s pole vault—especially after Omega revealed its Olympic-edition Seamaster Diver 300m “Paris 2024” last year—but they delivered a great addition to the legacy collection, without gimmickry.
However, the all-gold Speedmaster is 85K at the top end of the scale, which is a lot of money for a watch of this stature. By comparison, the immaculate Speedmaster Moonshine gold with a sun-brushed green PVD “step” dial is 15K cheaper, albeit without the Chronoscope complications.
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The Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope in stainless steel with a leather strap is priced at $15,725; stainless steel with steel bracelet at $16,275; 18k Moonshine Gold on leather strap $54,325; and 18k Moonshine Gold with matching gold bracelet $85,350, available at Omega boutiques now.
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We put Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4 under the microsope.
In our quest to locate the most exclusive and exciting wines for our readers, we usually ask the question, “How many bottles of this were made?” Often, we get a general response based on an annual average, although many Champagne houses simply respond, “We do not wish to communicate our quantities.” As far as we’re concerned, that’s pretty much like pleading the Fifth on the witness stand; yes, you’re not incriminating yourself, but anyone paying attention knows you’re probably guilty of something. In the case of some Champagne houses, that something is making a whole lot of bottles—millions of them—while creating an illusion of rarity.
We received the exact opposite reply regarding Armand de Brignac Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4. Yasmin Allen, the company’s president and CEO, told us only 7,328 bottles would be released of this Pinot Noir offering. It’s good to know that with a sticker price of around $1,800, it’s highly limited, but it still makes one wonder what’s so exceptional about it.
Known by its nickname, Ace of Spades, for its distinctive and decorative metallic packaging, Armand de Brignac is owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy and Jay-Z and is produced by Champagne Cattier. Each bottle of Assemblage No. 4 is numbered; a small plate on the back reads “Assemblage Four, [X,XXX]/7,328, Disgorged: 20 April, 2023.” Prior to disgorgement, it spent seven years in the bottle on lees after primary fermentation mostly in stainless steel with a small amount in concrete. That’s the longest of the house’s Champagnes spent on the lees, but Allen says the winemaking team tasted along the way and would have disgorged earlier than planned if they’d felt the time was right.
Chef de cave, Alexandre Cattier, says the wine is sourced from some of the best Premier and Grand Cru Pinot Noir–producing villages in the Champagne region, including Chigny-les-Roses, Verzenay, Rilly-la-Montagne, Verzy, Ludes, Mailly-Champagne, and Ville-sur-Arce in the Aube département. This is considered a multi-vintage expression, using wine from a consecutive trio of vintages—2013, 2014, and 2015—to create an “intense and rich” blend. Seventy percent of the offering is from 2015 (hailed as one of the finest vintages in recent memory), with 15 percent each from the other two years.
This precisely crafted Champagne uses only the tête de cuvée juice, a highly selective extraction process. As Allen points out, “the winemakers solely take the first and freshest portion of the gentle cuvée grape press,” which assures that the finished wine will be the highest quality. Armand de Brignac used grapes from various sites and three different vintages so the final product would reflect the house signature style. This is the fourth release in a series that began with Assemblage No. 1. “Testing different levels of intensity of aromas with the balance of red and dark fruits has been a guiding principle between the Blanc de Noirs that followed,” Allen explains.
The CEO recommends allowing the Assemblage No. 4 to linger in your glass for a while, telling us, “Your palette will go on a journey, evolving from one incredible aroma to the next as the wine warms in your glass where it will open up to an extraordinary length.” We found it to have a gorgeous bouquet of raspberry and Mission fig with hints of river rock; as it opened, notes of toasted almond and just-baked brioche became noticeable. With striking acidity and a vein of minerality, it has luscious nectarine, passion fruit, candied orange peel, and red plum flavors with touches of beeswax and a whiff of baking spices on the enduring finish. We enjoyed our bottle with a roast chicken rubbed with butter and herbes de Provence and savored the final, extremely rare sip with a bit of Stilton. Unfortunately, the pairing possibilities are not infinite with this release; there are only 7,327 more ways to enjoy yours.
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Bill Henson Show Opens at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Dark, grainy and full of shadows Bill Henson’s latest show draws on 35 mm colour film shot in New York City in 1989.
Bill Henson is one of Australia’s best-known contemporary photographers. When a show by this calibre of artist opens here, the art world waits with bated breath to see what he will unveil.
This time, he presents a historically important landscape series that chronicles a time in New York City that no longer exists. It’s a nostalgic trip back in time, a nocturnal odyssey through the frenetic, neon-lit streets of a long-lost America.
Known for his chiaroscuro style, Henson’s cinematic photographs often transform his subject into ambiguous objects of beauty. This time round, the show presents a mysterious walk through the streets of Manhattan, evoking a seedy, yet beautiful vision of the city.
Relying on generative gaps, these landscapes result from Henson mining his archive of negatives and manipulating them to produce a finished print. Sometimes, they are composed by a principle of magnification, with Henson honing in on details, and sometimes, they are created through areas of black being expanded to make the scene more cinematic and foreboding. Like silence in a film or the pause in a pulse, the black suggests the things you can’t see.
Henson’s illustrious career has spanned four decades and was memorably marred by controversy over a series of nude adolescent photographs shown in 2008, which made him front-page news for weeks. This series of portraits made Henson the subject of a police investigation during which no offence was found.
In recent years, Henson has been a sharp critic of cancel culture, encouraging artists to contribute something that will have lasting value and add to the conversation, rather than tearing down the past.
His work deals with the liminal space between the mystical and the real, the seen and unseen, the boundary between youth and adulthood.
His famous Paris Opera Project, 1990-91, pictured above, is similarly intense as the current show, dwelling on the border between the painterly and the cinematic.
Bill Henson’s ‘The Liquid Night’ runs until 11 May 2024 at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 8 Soudan Ln, Paddington NSW; roslynoxley9.com.au
