20 Things You Didn’t Know About Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
13. “Mr Bond. Miss Lin. Welcome To Saigon.”
Determined to visit Asia, the filmmakers identified Vietnam as a very different location for a Bond film.
Initially, negotiations with the Vietnamese authorities were positive but, two days after a container ship carrying equipment had left the UK, the Vietnamese government declined permission to film there, ostensibly because the nation’s movie industry was ill-equipped to accommodate a Bond film. However, rumours circulated that the Vietnamese authorities considered Double-0 Seven to be a vehicle for anti-Communist rhetoric.
Special effects supervisor, Chris Corbould diverted the ship to Singapore until Bangkok, Thailand was secured as a last-minute stand-in for Vietnam’s highest populous city: Saigon.
The Sinn Sathorn Tower in Thonburi, Bangkok, which represented Carver’s headquarters, was the largest building in Thailand at the time, but was digitally enhanced to appear much taller. Allan Cameron replicated part of the tower and built a Vietnamese street at Eon Studios.
Costume designer, Lindy Hemming was also quite specific in dressing extras in Bangkok as, whilst the Thai people usually adopt Western fashions, the Vietnamese wear loose-fitting garments. Roger Spottiswoode even had to decide whether a hat worn by an extra might obscure the action when Double-0 Seven discovers Wai Lin’s safe house!