Catholics protest filming ‘Spectre,’ James Bond at Ponte Sisto
Catholic protesters have organized against film producers who had planned to shoot key scenes from the new James Bond movie, Spectre, at an historic site in Rome. Headlines report the Daniel Craig led film “has been thrown into chaos.”
“Filming has been thrown into chaos after a row broke out over whether to use the 15th century Ponte Sisto bridge, including having Daniel Craig leap from a helicopter,” writes the Gloucester Citizen.
The Ponte Sisto bridge is in Rome’s historic district and has ties to Pope Innocent X – prompting protests at authorities in the Italian capital.
“The construction of the current bridge was ordered by Pope Sixtus IV(for whom it is named) using the architect Baccio Pontelli between 1473 and 1479 to replace what remained of a prior Roman bridge named Pons Aurelius.”
That bridge was destroyed during the Middle Ages.
Production will have to work around the restrictions (for now…)
Craig returns as Bond for his fourth film in the successful franchise with Sherlock‘s Andrew Scott as a Whitehall-based character called Denbigh and Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista, playing a henchman called Mr Hinx.
Italian actress Monica Bellucci and France’s Lea Seydoux have been unveiled as the new ‘Bond girls’, named Lucia Sciarra and Madeleine Swann respectively.
Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris are also set to reprise their roles from the previous Craig-led films.
Spectre arrives in theaters on November 6, 2015.