Deep in the heart of Pinewood Studios, down a long corridor and through some swing doors is the room where Die Another Day was devised and planned.

It's a simple white walled room with a long executive table and leather sofas. This is the engine room of the 007 where explosions are formulated, gadgets conceived and plots dreamed up.

I was there to meet Anthony Waye, the executive producer of the James Bond film.

Around the room are framed posters of previous James Bond films. Die Another Day is the twentieth. It is 40 years since Dr No, the first Bond, was released, and it's the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming's book.

Anthony sinks back into the squashy leather sofa and smiles.

"On August 1 last year we sat in this room and had a big meeting all we had was 100 pages of script. 15 months later we have employed 1200 people, been to six countries, built giant sets, blown things up, shot it, edited it, done the music and delivered it. It's not bad."

Anthony, who grew up in Fulmer and still lives in the area, has to oversee the entire film.

"They call me the hub," he laughs.

This is Anthony's ninth Bond. He began as assistant director on For Your Eyes Only and then worked his way up to executive producer. "I do all the schedules for all the units when we are shooting. It is quite a problem. We have two big units of 150 people plus. They might be working in different countries, chopping and changing from Cornwall to Spain, and I have to plan ahead. I try to see the problems that are coming up. Sometimes planning is dependent on weather and sometimes actors' availability. And if there is a hole coming up a time when we are not filming I gather the heads of departments together and say what can we fill it with. Can the special effects department blow up a car then? So that we don't stop shooting, which is the cardinal sin."

One of the main locations on Die Another Day is the cement works at Chinnor. In the film Chinnor is meant to be North Korea.

"It is a fabulous location," enthuses Anthony. "And it is in the opening scene."

But the weather played havoc with the filming.

"It didn't stop raining. Will Yun Lee who plays Colonel Moon was shooting a TV series in the States and we only had him for eight days, which included four days travelling to and from America, so in fact we only had him for four days.

"We took him to Chinnor to do this work but the weather was so bad we had to abandon it. So we took him into the studio where we had to green screen him and we dropped the picture in afterwards."

It wasn't only in England where the weather nearly stopped the filming of Bond, it happened in Spain too.

"In Spain we had high winds and it was heavily overcast. It was so bad I called the charter plane out there three days early and had it sitting on a runway. Every day the crew checked out of the hotel, left their bags in their rooms and went to work. Then we made the decision of what we could do to abandon the shoot and fly home or carry on working. We carried on working. But you wouldn't know it was bad weather from the film. The film looks great. You can choose your moments."

Another time when the elements seemed against the Bond crew was when they were filming on a lake in Iceland. Just as the crew was setting off they found out they couldn't film on the lake because it had not frozen to a safe depth.

"It froze to five inches thick and we needed it to be 10 inches thick. So we had to find an alternative location which would be as visually good as well as doing the job of being able to get ten action cars, camera cars and 150 crew on site. We found a lake in Alaska. Then luckily the lake in Iceland froze just in time and we filmed there for three weeks.

"The day before we were due to finish the icebergs began to move and crack and the safety advisor said don't come back tomorrow."

But the weather wasn't always against them.

"We were extremely lucky in Hawaii. We hit three fabulous days of weather sunshine, off-shore winds, beautiful blue green sea, high 40ft waves and brilliant sunshine."

Moving a film crew isn't simply getting 150 people onto a plane in time, it is more like a military manoeuvre.

"You have to think big thoughts, logistics and safety. In Iceland we took up 20 containers of equipment, five Aston Martins and five Jaguars which all had different functions. We had to take all the explosives, guns and ammunition and we had to get all the permits. We have to take all our machinery repair machinery for the cars when they get damaged, camera equipment and camera cranes.

"I have to think early because I have to get that onto a ship and get it up to Reykjavik, and then across from Reykjavik to Hofn which is a five-hour drive. And then we had problems with 100 mile an hour gales - three of the trucks blew over."

Even with all the big exotic locations, Anthony explains that essentially a Bond film is a studio based film and they take over 11 stages as well as the big 007 stage at Pinewood.

"The Bond films are basically studio films because the sets are always very complicated, you can only do so much on location." In Die Another Day the sets include the ice palace, Blade's club, Bond's suite, M's office and a North Korean bunker.

"We were constantly changing the sets around.

Being executive producer on a Bond film is not a nine to five job.

"I work 12 to 14 hours a day six or seven days a week especially when we are shooting. I wake up at 4am and write notes to myself and I am still working at 11pm after talking to America. I have units in different countries and they are not working Monday to Saturday, they could be working on Sunday. My mobile is always on.

"My life is totally consumed by Bond."

Anthony believes that this Bond film is slightly different from the ones that have gone before.

"It is a harder picture. This is meaner. Lee Tamohori the director said: 'I steer clear of casinos. I wanted to go for a much harder and meaner Bond'."

So can Bond go into the 21st century?

"Bond is quite a legend. People enjoy them because they have a little bit for everyone. We are making a film that is going to be seen by 100 million people around the world. People with different cultures, different religions, different nationalities, so we have to be careful.

"People seem to like the style of a Bond. It has glamour, stunts, action and toughness.

"Can it go on? They have to adapt. We have been so innovative over the years, everyone copies us."

And does he have a favourite Bond film?

"I don't really have a preference, I like chunks out of every film," Anthony says diplomatically. In true Bond style.

November 27, 2002 11:01