James Bond in Istanbul! James Bond shakes and stirs Grand Bazaar in Istanbul at Skyfall filming as Motorcycles duel atop Grand Bazaar for James Bond scene.

Istanbul / NationalTurk – Shooting for the new James Bond Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig, continued this week with the filming of one of the movie’s most important action scenes atop Istanbul’s iconic Grand Bazaar (Kapalı Çarşı). James Bond Skyfall shootings continue eventfully in Istanbul ‘s old city as dangerous motorcycle scenes were successfully staged by two stuntmen for Daniel craig on the roof of the Grand Bazaar not without incident.

James Bond stuntman in the new James Bond movie ‘ Skyfall ‘ now shooting in Istanbul lost control of his motorcycle and smashed into the window of a 330-year-old shop in Istanbul’s 15th-century Grand Bazaar.

James Bond Skyfall filming in Istanbul greeted with different comments

Risking life and limb, two stuntmen climbed to the roof of the Grand Bazaar for the scene on April 17, riding motorcycles across the top of the large market while shop owners in the bazaar watched them through windows.

The dangerous scenes, for which 400 people worked, were successfully staged without incident.
On the first day of Istanbul filming over the weekend, a 400-year-old wooden building on Aynacılar Street in the Grand Bazaar was damaged when motorcycles that were passing in front of a jewelry shop missed the corner and hit the structure.

The shop window and the marble of the structure were broken during the accident and its columns also suffered damage. The owner of the jewelry shop, Mete Boybeyi, called the police following the incident.

The shop provides the jewelry used in the popular Turkish TV series “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” (The Magnificent Century).

James Bond Turkey : Do the scenes damage Grand Bazaar ?

Others also claimed that the production team had damaged tiles at the bazaar, but the rumors were denied by Grand Bazaar Artisans Association Executive Board member Faruk Bektaş, who said the tiles had already been damaged in the last restoration in 1983.

Mete Boybeyi, who owns a jewelry store in the Grand Bazaar, complained to the daily newspaper NationalTurk about damage when motorcycles missed a turn and crashed into the 400-year-old wooden building.”It is very nice for the Grand Bazaar to be chosen as a location for shooting this kind of movie. But the bazaar’s administration … didn’t notify us the shooting would be like this,” said Mete Boybeyi, the owner of the shop which once served members of the Ottoman court from the nearby palace.

“This place is regulated by the Council of Monuments. We can’t even change our window without their permission,” he said.

“The film team removed the tiles across a 100-square-meter area for the shooting and replaced them with plastic ones brought from the United Kingdom. They also supported the plastic tiles with silicone materials so as not to damage the roof. The Istanbul Municipality, Culture Ministry and the Governor’s Office inspect the shooting all the time,” said Bektaş, adding that Grand Bazaar artisans had not complained about the shooting.

Storm in Istanbul creates havoc at the set of James Bond Skyfall

In another development, yesterday afternoon there was an extremely violent windstorm which wreaked havoc with the set in Eminonu. Afterwards, it was announced that the roof on the Grand Bazaar had been damaged due to the storm. However, there were some observers who said that roof tiles had been damaged previously by the filming of a stunt scene on the roof of the Bazaar. Let’s hope that the storm will not serve as an excuse for the film company not to make the repairs to damage that they may have caused.

Shooting for “Skyfall” moved to Istanbul this week after wrapping up in the southern province of Adana.‘‘Skyfall,’’ starring Daniel Craig as Agent 007 and Judi Dench as his boss, M, is the third Bond film to have scenes from Turkey’s cultural capital, after ‘‘To Russia With Love’’ in 1963 starring Sean Connery (at the Hagia Sophia), and ‘‘The World is Not Enough’’ in 1999, with Pierce Brosnan (at the Maiden’s Tower on the Bosporus).

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