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'Tomorrow may come' for Bond fans here

Sri Lanka would be an ideal location for the next Bond movie, says Robin Lock, whose Eden Project- a nature theme park in Cornwall, England was used to shoot some scenes for the latest Bond movie Die Another Day

By Ayesha R. Rafiq
The next James Bond movie will be made in Sri Lanka!!! Wishful thinking? Maybe. Maybe not, if Robin Lock has his way. Robin who, you may ask. While he's not exactly next in line to say, 'Bond, James Bond', or even be the movie's location manager, his role as the executive director of Rainforest Rescue International may well ensure local Bond fans a chance of a lifetime.

As well as working for the Sri Lankan based RRI, Robin, a passionate environmentalist is also part of the team that developed the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, an innovative and pioneering nature theme park, designed with the sole purpose of introducing young adults to the true wonders of nature, as well as housing the world's largest conservatory, home to some of the world's most exotic plants, which attracts two million visitors a year.

Enter James Bond. If like me, you're yet to watch the latest Bond movie 'Die Another Day', watch closely and you'll see some night action scenes, one where Halle Berry, Bond girl du jour comes sliding down from the ceiling, and another where she stands ready for action, gun in hand, against a backdrop of tropical plants. The location of these scenes, is the Eden Project's biome, or tropical conservatory.

Robin recalled how the crew of about 100 filmed tirelessly all night for three weeks.

"It was fascinating to watch, and I'm definitely proud that they chose the Eden Project as one of their filming locations," he said. Caretakers at the conservatory still find bullets fired during the action scenes embedded in the ground and the trees, a memento of the Project's claim to international fame.

Director of photography, David Tattersall in an online interview about the filming at the Eden project, talks about the challenges of on- location filming. "That place (the conservatory) is so big, it needs about 10 Icarus lamps to light it!" Eddie Knight, a gaffer on the set said. "I told David I'd love to put some lamps in the air.....for a night scene in which Jinx rappels down from the ceiling of one of the domes, but the dome was just too tall (50m high).” The early hour (during the winter months) contributed to the ambience, according to Tattersall. "We were only allowed to shoot in the short time before the paying public was admitted," he recalled.

In Sri Lanka on a mission to educate and motivate the public to take an interest in the environment, Robin is not going about it in an ordinary way. He theorises that in order for people to be interested in the environment, there has to be something to interest them. It is with this end in mind that he has written to the location manager of the Bond movies asking them to consider Sri Lanka, with its rich biodiversity as a probable location site for the next Bond movie. "I think Sri Lanka has a lot to offer, and especially now that there is peace, I encouraged them to think about it," Robin said.

So sit tight for some possible action and who knows, maybe a meeting with 007 and a Bond girl. Wishful thinking? Maybe.........maybe not.

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