20 Things You Didn't Know About The World Is Not Enough (1999)

19. Casino L’Or Noir

World Is Not Enough Fight
MGM

When the audience last saw Robbie Coltrane's Valentin Dimitrovich Zukovsky, he had set James Bond up with his chief underworld competitor and terrorist, Janus in GoldenEye.

Having moved up in the world since then, Zukovsky left the slums, railway sidings, and warehouses of St. Petersburg behind and seemingly joined the realms of high society in Baku, Azerbaijan to rub shoulders with the likes of Sir Robert King (David Calder) and his beautiful daughter, Elektra.

His Casino L’Or Noir (black gold, as in oil) is one of the most lavish gambling houses to feature in the Bond franchise and is the scene of a tense and unusual play-off between Zukovsky and Elektra that leaves even Double-0 Seven feeling as though something is not right.

Due to the dangers of sending key cast and crew members out to Azerbaijan, the real setting of the Casino L'Or Noir was nowhere near Baku. Instead, both the exterior and the interior were represented by Halton House at RAF Halton near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, which serves as the officers' mess there.

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