Skyfall producers defend invisible car in ‘gritty’ Die Another Day

John Cleese unveiling the ridiculous invisible car in ‘Die Another Day’ is perhaps the most ridiculous scene in the James Bond franchise, the moment the Pierce Brosnan era ‘jumped the shark’.

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Indeed the whole film - which also saw 007 surf a Tsunami - couldn’t be more different from the superlative ‘Skyfall, which is currently dominating the DVD charts after a record-breaking cinema run.

During the train-set press day for the ‘Skyfall’ DVD, we spoke to writers Neil Purvis and Roger Wade and producing team Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, about the contrast between the two films.

Firstly, it seems they don’t regret the invisible car. “I think you can’t regret anything, because what you do affects your next step,” said Barbara Broccoli.

“By the way, those are now part of the military”, added Wilson.

“It’s true,” replied Broccoli. “That’s where we got the idea from when we were making the film. It was the cutting edge of technology.”

Writer Roger Wade also reckons ‘Die Another Day’ isn’t as different to ‘Skyfall’ as you might think.

“’Die Another Day’, on the page, was fairly gritty,” he said.

“The first hour is good,” agreed Purvis. “Then it goes a bit cartoon-y. But at the start, Brosnan is captured by the North Koreans, tortured, then traded for an enemy agent. M is very tough [with Bond] and he has to escape. They question whether Bond has cracked and so on. It is reasonably similar material to the later ones but it’s the way it’s done [by the director].

So if Sam Mendes, rather than Lee Tamahori had directed ‘Die Another Day’ then it might have been a masterpiece…

Check out our gallery of the Skyfall Train below: