20 Things You Didn’t Know About The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
7. “The Lady Will Be Travelling To Atlantis With Me."
When Lewis Gilbert suggested that Stromberg should have an underwater lair, he was inspired by Aquapolis, an Expo '75 exhibition in Okinawa, Japan that could partially submerge.
Designed by Japanese architect, Kiyonori Kikutake and built in a shipyard in Hiroshima, Aquapolis resembled an oil rig, leaving Ken Adam very unimpressed; he resolved that he and Derek Meddings could bring the concept to life through miniatures instead. However, footage of fish filmed in Okinawa was used to represent Stromberg's aquarium.
Adam experimented with curved shapes in designing the Stromberg Marine Research Laboratory - christened Atlantis - which was built as a miniature by Meddings and his team at Pinewood Studios before being shipped to Coral Harbour in Nassau for filming.
Ken Adam constructed a partial set of the facility’s top deck at Pinewood Studios, enhanced with matte paintings and front projection for the sequence in which Dr. Bechmann and Professor Markovitz depart aboard a Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter. However, the miniature’s top deck - complete with helicopters - was so detailed that still photographs of it were used on some of the film’s teaser posters.
Aquapolis remained as an attraction in Okinawa after Expo ‘75 concluded. It closed in 1993 and was towed to Shanghai to be scrapped in October 2000 when its parent company went bankrupt.