After the success of
The World Is Not Enough, producers
Barbara Broccoli and
Michael G. Wilson asked the director
Michael Apted to return to direct. Although Apted accepted, they rescinded the offer in order to ask
Tony Scott and
John Woo, who both declined. Scott claims to have suggested
Quentin Tarantino as director, although Wilson denies that any formal negotiations were held with him. Pierce Brosnan suggested
John McTiernan,
Ang Lee and
Martin Scorsese as potential choices, and informally discussed the idea of directing a Bond film with Scorsese on a flight.
Brett Ratner,
Stephen Hopkins and
Stuart Baird were later in negotiations to direct, before
Lee Tamahori was hired.
Filming Principal photography of
Die Another Day began on 11 January 2002 at
Pinewood Studios. The film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom,
Iceland and
Cádiz, Spain. Other locations included Pinewood Studios'
007 Stage and
Maui, Hawaii, in December 2001.
Laird Hamilton,
Dave Kalama and
Darrick Doerner performed the pre-title surfing scene at the surf break known as "Jaws" in
Peahi, Maui, while the shore shots were taken near Cádiz and
Newquay,
Cornwall. Scenes inside Graves's diamond mine were also filmed in Cornwall, at the
Eden Project. The scenes involving the Cuban locations of
Havana and the fictional Isla de Los Organos were filmed at
La Caleta, Spain. The scenes featuring Berry in a bikini (designed to resemble
Ursula Andress's swimming costume in
Dr. No) were shot in
Cádiz. The location was cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels between takes to avoid catching a chill. Berry was injured during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a 30-minute operation. Brosnan also sustained a knee injury during the shooting of an action scene in
Cornwall. The film includes references to each of the preceding films. Gadgets and other props from every previous
Bond film and stored in Eon Productions' archives appear in Q's warehouse in the
London Underground. Examples include the jetpack in
Thunderball and
Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoe in
From Russia with Love. Q mentions that the watch he issues Bond is "your 20th, I believe", a reference to
Die Another Day being the 20th Eon-produced Bond film. In London, the
Reform Club was used to shoot several places in the film, including the lobby and gallery at the Blades Club, MI6 Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, Green Park and Westminster.
Jökulsárlón, Iceland was used for the car chase on the ice. Four Aston Martins and four Jaguars, all converted to four-wheel drive, were used (and wrecked) filming the sequence. A temporary dam was constructed at the mouth of the narrow inlet to keep the salty ocean water out and allow the lagoon to freeze. Additional chase footage was filmed at
Svalbard, Norway,
Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway, and
RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire. The scene in which Bond surfs the wave created by Icarus when Graves was attempting to kill Bond was shot on the
blue screen. The waves, along with all the glaciers in the scene, are computer-generated. The hangar interior of the US Air Base in South Korea, shown crowded with
Chinook helicopters, was filmed at
RAF Odiham in Hampshire, UK, as were the helicopter interior shots during the Switchblade sequence. These latter scenes, though portrayed in the air, were actually filmed entirely on the ground with the sky background being added in post-production using blue screen techniques. Although the base is portrayed in the film as a US base, all the aircraft and personnel in the scene are British in real life. In the film, Switchblades (one-person gliders resembling fighter jets in shape) are flown by Bond and Jinx to stealthily enter North Korea. The Switchblade was based on a workable model called "PHASST" (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport). Kinetic Aerospace Inc.'s lead designer, Jack McCornack was impressed by director Lee Tamahori's way of conducting the Switchblade scene and commented: "It's brief, but realistic. The good guys get in unobserved, thanks to a fast cruise, good glide performance, and minimal radar signature. It's a wonderful promotion for the PHASST." The satellite attack at the end of the film was at first written to take place in
Manhattan, but after the
September 11 attacks, it was moved to the
Korean Demilitarized Zone. He again made use of electronic rhythm elements in his score, and included two of the new themes created for
The World Is Not Enough. The first, originally used as Renard's theme, is heard during the mammoth "Antonov" cue on the recording, and is written for piano. The second new theme, used in the "Christmas in Turkey" track of
The World Is Not Enough, is reused in the "Going Down Together" track. The
title song for Die Another Day was co-written and co-produced by
Mirwais Ahmadzai and performed by
Madonna, who also had a
cameo in the film as Verity, a fencing instructor. The concept of the title sequence is to represent Bond trying to survive 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans. Critics' opinions of the song were sharply divided; it was nominated for a
Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the 2004
Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, but also for a
Golden Raspberry Award for
Worst Original Song of 2002 (while Madonna herself won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her cameo). In a
MORI poll for the
Channel 4 programme ''"James Bond's Greatest Hits"'', the song was voted 9th out of 22, and also came in as an "overwhelming number one" favourite among those under the age of 24. ==Marketing==