20 Things You Didn’t Know About Moonraker (1979)
12. A Mondrian Wigwam
Hugo Drax’s impressive Mayan temple lair was shot at Tikal, Guatemala (which represented Yavin 4 in Star Wars).
The main unit started filming Moonraker on 14th August 1978 with James Bond entering the The Great Chamber, constructed at Studios d’Epinay in northern Paris. Production designer, Sir Ken Adam used a special resin on its plaster rocks to make it look plastic and false, presenting it as merely a front for Drax’s operations.
Roger Moore used a rubber prop on-set for Bond’s gripping fight with Drax’s “pet python”, whilst underwater footage was shot using a tame python from the San Fernando Valley, California at Silver Springs, Florida.
The sequence transitioned into Drax’s shuttle launch control centre at Studios de Boulogne on the other side of Paris, even though it was meant to adjoin The Great Chamber. Adam found that monitors were difficult to capture onscreen whilst filming You Only Live Twice (1967), so he used multiple projectors behind the set to represent its various monitors.
He proudly christened it “The Mondrian Set” after Dutch artist, Piet Mondrian's famous abstract bird’s eye view paintings of cities using bold black lines and primary colours set against white backgrounds, whilst Cubby Broccoli named it “The Wigwam Set”!