20 facts you might not know about 'Skyfall'

MGM wanted to get to work on what would become Skyfall right after Quantum of Solace, and they were able to do some preproduction. However, MGM then hit serious financial trouble, which put a pause on Skyfall for a while. Production was paused in 2009 and did not begin again until December 2010, when MGM emerged from bankruptcy.

Peter Morgan, writer of scripts such as The Queen and Frost/Nixon, was one of the original screenwriters on the movie. He was working along with the team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who had worked on previous Bond films. When MGM had its money woes, though, Morgan left the project. Purvis and Wade stayed on, and they say that basically everything Morgan had brought to the table was scrapped. Later, John Logan was brought on to rewrite Purvis and Wade’s script, and all three would end up sharing writing credit.

Sam Mendes emerged out the gate by winning Best Director for his debut film American Beauty. He’s also directed films like Revolutionary Road and Road to Perdition. On the latter, Mendes worked with Daniel Craig, which proved pivotal to him signing on. Mendes was unsure about directing a Bond movie, but he liked Craig’s work in the role and was down to work with him again.

Early on, rumors began to swirl that Skyfall was going to be called “Carte Blanche” and would be based on a recent Bond novel by Jeffery Deaver. Basically, there have been “continuation novels” released featuring James Bond since Ian Fleming’s death. These rumors proved completely unfounded, though, and Skyfall was announced as the title in November 2011.

Before they landed on Skyfall, other titles were used in the process. The treatment provided by Morgan, Purvis, and Wade was called “Once Upon a Spy,” which would have been pretty lousy. Then, when that was thrown out, Purvis and Wade titled their screenplay “Nothing is Forever,” which would have been pretty good, though we have no complaints about Skyfall as a title.

Among the Bond movie regulars are Miss Moneypenny and Q. However, they were both notably missing in the first two Craig films. Both are in Skyfall, though. Ben Whishaw’s casting as Q was particularly notable, given that he’s a much younger take on the character.

Naomie Harris was cast as Moneypenny, but nobody was supposed to know that. There was speculation that her character of “Eve” would indeed be Moneypenny, but the production denied it. In fact, Harris denied it as well.

Mendes was determined to have a memorable Bond villain in his film, and he definitely got that in Raoul Silva. He was also equally determined to get Bardem for the role. Mendes’ work paid off, and he was happy with the decision before filming even began. Bardem asked to have the entire script translated into Spanish, his native language, which Mendes took as a sign of his commitment.

Skyfall being released in 2012 meant it would coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the first James Bond film. In a nod to that, there was consideration to have Sean Connery appear in the role of Kincade. As soon as they pondered it, though, they realized that it would amount to distracting stunt casting, and instead Albert Finney got the role.

Mendes was by-and-large not a fan of “Once Upon a Spy,” the Morgan, Purvis, Wade version of the film. There was one thing he liked from their story: M dying. That being said, the version we ended up seeing was quite different. In that version, Bond would have killed M.

The name Skyfall comes from the name of Bond’s ancestral home in Scotland. That wasn’t a real building, though. It was a full-scale model made of plaster and plywood. In fact, it wasn’t even built on Scotland. Skyfall was built in Hankley Common, a nature reserve in Surrey, England.

Komodo Dragons are dangerous animals, which is why they are used as a threat to Bond in this movie. However, no actual Komodo Dragons were used at all in the movie, even in scenes where you can’t see Craig or other actors near them. The animals were completely CGI, and apparently, Mendes was so frustrated with the experience he said he would never use CGI animals or characters in his movies again.

Dench is a storied actor and an Oscar winner, but apparently not so adept with technology. Her phone kept going off during production. At least it was thematically on point. Dench’s ringtone was reportedly the iconic James Bond sting.

As we said, Finney, not Connery, ended up playing Kincade. Of course, in terms of esteem that was no step down. Though Finney never won an Oscar, he was nominated for five of them. Finney did a good job in this film, which is nice, because it was his last movie before retiring. He never acted in another film and passed away in 2019.

Singing a Bond theme song is a bit of an honor, and Adele got the nod for “Skyfall.” The song was released before the movie, and they were quite specific about the release time. It wasn’t merely released on Oct. 5, 2012, the 50th anniversary of Dr. No. It was also released at 0:07 British Standard Time — using military time, of course.

MGM was able to refill the coffers a bit with the success of Skyfall. It had the biggest opening of any Bond movie in the United States and Canada and ended up making $304.4 million in that region — fourth most of any 2012 film. Around the world, it made $1.109 billion, which was second-most of any 2012 movie. Bond is big in Europe.

Skyfall would end up with five Oscar nominations, including one for Best Cinematography for the legendary Roger Deakins. In the end, it would win two Academy Awards. One was for Best Sound Editing, and the other was for Best Original Song, which went to Adele for “Skyfall.” It was the first Bond song to win that award.

The BAFTAs are the “British Oscars,” and as such, they tend to be bigger fans of British films than the Academy. They seemed particularly taken with Skyfall. The movie got eight BAFTA nominations, and it won their award for Best British Film. That being said, it wasn’t nominated for Best Film. Argo won that award.

Bond ends up off the grid for a while in Skyfall after he is shot and seriously injured early on. This is not something that happens to 007 as much as you might think. In fact, this was only the second time Bond had ever suffered a gunshot wound in a movie. The first time? All the way back in Thunderball.

James Bond takes a bullet and is wounded for the second time in a film, but that’s not the only time we got the second occurrence of a rare event. Bond cries openly in Skyfall, and he had only done that previously in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That movie is notably the only time George Lazenby played Bond.