Later that night, shooting of the burning San Francisco City Hall commenced. At first, only a few plates constructed to resemble the Golden Gate Bridge were used. On October 6, 1984, the fourth unit, headed by special effects supervisor John Richardson, began its work on the climactic fight sequence. The scene in which Bond and Sutton enter the mineshaft was then filmed in a waterlogged quarry near Staines-upon-Thames and the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in West Sussex. The crew then departed for shooting the horse-racing scenes at Royal Ascot Racecourse. Work had continued on other stages at Pinewood when Roger Moore rejoined the main unit there on 1 August 1984. Broccoli’s 007 Stage) for filming of A View to a Kill. The stage was rebuilt, and reopened in January 1985 (renamed as Albert R. On 27 June 1984, several leftover canisters of petrol used during filming of Ridley Scott’s Legend caused Pinewood Studios’ 007 Stage to burn to the ground. Production of the film began on 23 June 1984 in Iceland, where the second unit filmed the pre-title sequence. The Lefty O’Doul Bridge was featured in the fire engine chase scene. The rest of the major filming was done at Fisherman’s Wharf, Dunsmuir House, San Francisco City Hall and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Several French landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, its Jules Verne restaurant and the Château de Chantilly were filmed.
The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in London, Iceland, Switzerland, France and the United States with the budget initially being $35 million. Principal photography began with the horse racing scenes at Ascot Racecourse on August 1, 1984.
Lundgren appears during the confrontation between Gogol and Zorin at the racetrack, standing several steps below Gogol. Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time, was visiting her on set when one day an extra was missing, so the director John Glen then asked him if he wanted to attempt the role. Yip’s character Chuck Lee was originally scripted as Felix Leiter, but he was rewritten into a new Asian-American character in order to capitalize on the setting of San Francisco.ĭolph Lundgren has brief appearance as one of General Gogol’s KGB agents.
Patrick Macnee, as Bond’s ally Tibbett, became the fourth former star of The Avengers TV series to appear in a Bond film, after Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Joanna Lumley. However, Bach declined the role, and so a new character–Pola Ivanova–was created, played by Fiona Fullerton. The original script had Barbara Bach reprising her role as Major Anya Amasova from 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. Priscilla Presley was going to be cast as Stacey Sutton, but she had to be replaced by Tanya Roberts because of her contract with Dallas. The Living Daylights would have a disclaimer about the use of the Red Cross.ĭavid Bowie initially accepted the role of Zorin, but later declined, saying “I didn’t want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs.” The role was then offered to Sting, who turned it down, and finally to Christopher Walken. This is the first Bond film to have a disclaimer. When a company with a name similar to Zorin (the Zoran Corporation) was discovered in the US, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that Zorin was not related to any real-life company. Originally Maibaum’s script included Zorin manipulating Halley’s Comet into crashing into Silicon Valley, but Wilson insisted on a more realistic plot.Īt the end of Octopussy, the “James Bond Will Return” sequence listed the next film as “From a View to a Kill,” the name of the original short story, but later the title was changed. Wilson, who also co-authored the script along with Richard Maibaum.īroccoli initially wanted to rehire George MacDonald Fraser from Octopussy to co-write the screenplay but he was unavailable. Along with the other stories in Ian Fleming’s 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only, the original short story “From a View to a Kill” was originally envisioned as an episode of an abandoned 1958 CBS James Bond TV series.Ī View to a Kill was produced by Albert R.