20 Things You Didn’t Know About Quantum Of Solace (2008)
8. “...We Have People Everywhere.”
Even though Marc Forster did not know how the Palio di Siena would feature in the finished film, the second unit shot the horse race in Siena, Italy on 16th August 2007 before the first unit recreated it at Piazza del Campo in May 2008.
Forster shot the interrogation scene, cisterns, and the art gallery fight on the rebuilt Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. The MI6 safe house was originally on a rooftop, leading into the chase between Double-0 Seven and M’s treacherous bodyguard, Craig Mitchell, but Forster set it underground before finding a way onto the rooftops for the sake of variety. Nevertheless, Bond’s planned emergence from the cisterns at Duomo di Siena was deemed disrespectful and was relocated to the Fonte Gaia.
Authorisation to film the chase on a recreation of the rooftops at Pinewood was denied by the producers, so Forster asked the Sienese authorities for permission to film there, which was actually cheaper! The rooftops were strengthened and four full-sized cranes weighing 200 tons each trailed wires more than 150 feet above the streets to keep Daniel Craig, Glenn Foster, the crew, and equipment safe during filming in April 2008.