Sometimes, it is literally amazing that movies get made at all. The random stuff that can go pear shaped should really doom every film that's ever attempted. Even a movie like Skyfall, the most successful film in the entire James Bond franchise, came very close to not being successful, all because Daniel Craig's newest fashion accessory was nearly a multi-million dollar problem. The post-production team had to digitally alter Craig's hands to remove a pair of gloves, because it was cheaper than reshooting an entire sequence in the film.
Filmmaker and film critic Charlie Lyne has recently taken to Twitter to recount a story he heard regarding the production of the film Skyfall. Apparently, according to this anecdote, production of the film was very hard on Daniel Craig, and the actor used to indulge in a bit of retail therapy during his time off the set to unwind. On one of these trips, he bought a nice pair of leather gloves, that he thought would also suit the James Bond character, so he asked director Sam Mendes if he could wear them in the scene. Lyne explains below.
The scene in question is the one that takes place within a casino in Macau. It culminates with a fight sequence in which James Bond loses his gun to his opponent, who tries to shoot Bond with it. Here's where the problem comes in, however. If you recall, the gun that James Bond gets from Q has a built-in fingerprint scanner. This comes in very handy in the fight, as the villain is unable to fire the gun. Of course, the scanner would have also been a problem for Bond as well, as he's wearing gloves at the time. What was he going to do if he had a chance to shoot the guy?
As entertaining as all of this sounds, there's some question as to its authenticity. First off, if you look at the hands in that scene, they don't actually look all that bad. Secondly, what wardrobe supervisor worth their salt would let James Bond wear leather gloves with a tuxedo?
As Birth.Movies.Death. points out, there's actually a scene in the movie, when James Bond is in Shanghai, where he actually is wearing leather gloves, removes them, and then, later in the scene, appears to have put them back on. It's possible the story is true, but the scene where all this happened got confused in the telling. BMD also points out that one of the earliest promotional images of Skyfall appears to come from the Shanghai scene, although in the initial image, Bond is wearing gloves, but in the final cut, he's not.
What do you think? Do Bond's hands look strange in the casino scene, or was it a different sequence that needed to be altered? Or is the entire story a confused mess? Let us know what you think in the comments.
