A Word from Ian Burnett & Steve Cawood
Directors of "JAMES BOND: KILLING IN THE NAME"
First of all, many thanks to all our internet fans - you make the hard work worthwhile!
We have made quite a few films over the years, but I can safely say Killing In The Name is our most ambitious so far.
We shot the Jet bikes in Nottingham and we hand picked our stunt men from the chaps who worked at the jet-bike centre. I have to admit the blokes involved in that sequence were absolute troopers. We only had 2 cameras so we had to shoot stunts over and over again until we had enough footage for the editing. I was always very conscious that the editing of the film had to be very tightly paced to support the music and action we have all become used to watching in Bond movies. However, we never used storyboards (none of us could draw) - we just made most of it up on the spot, asking the chaps what they could do with the bikes.
We actually ended up spending the full day shooting the bikes and by the end we were a little concerned for one of riders health because he was shivering so much that he couldn?t even speak but nevertheless he continued on like a true pro.
On this film, we were really lucky to meet some really passionate people, and without their dedication and time we couldn?t have made this film. Our main villain "John Taylor" was an ex-paratrooper, and when we met him for the first time we knew instantly he was ideal for the part. John is a black belt in karate and he explained to us how he could snap someone?s neck with just two fingers. It was all impressive stuff, but nothing prepared us for his fantastic arsenal of blank firing guns. The Berretta in the film actually belonged to John. However, he was from Lancashire and so he spoke with a very broad northern accent so we decided it best to dub him in the edit. We though it would be like what they did with the actor Gert Frobe who played Goldfinger. However, our version looked more like Goldmember and ended up been rather comical due to our last minute decision to go for a badly dubed American accent.
The most expensive shot in the film was the plane taking off at the end of the movie. That one shot alone cost us ?75 and we shot it standing at the bottom of the runway with the camera and tripod praying that we didn?t mess it up and waste all the beer money we had all paid for the final shot.
Anyways, we hope you enjoy watching this film as much as we enjoyed shooting it. We are certainly very proud of what we managed to achieve and Killing in the Name remains a credit to all the hard work and passion everybody brought to this production.
Enjoy the movie!!
Ian Burnett & Steve Cawood
Director, James Bond: Killing in the Name