James Bond menaced by red hot Chilean

The mayor of a small Chilean town has expressed his displeasure at the hoisting of the Bolivian flag over his home by mounting a motorised disruption of filming of next Bond outing Quantum of Solace. Carlos Lopez drove a small saloon car straight onto the set at the railway station in Baquedano, in the process reportedly …

[Stephen Gray]

I assume they paid for the rights to film

Close down filming, take all of the foreign currency that would have been spent by the crew and go somewhere else, simple

[Anonymous Coward]

If they want to come to my town (in England) and film,

I would be perfectly happy for it to be portrayed as in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany or anywhere else; so long as they spend their money, that is.

These people really ought to get a grip!

[Anonymous Coward]

@Anon

"get a grip"

I'm sure they had one of those, they're professional film-makers!

...the long gabardine with the monocular in the pocket - if you would be so kind.

[Wayland Sothcott]

Carlos - you da man

Defend your country. Nice protest. However I expect they won't want to make films in your town again.

Oh look I see they're leaving.

[Ash]

cornwall = north korea

They dressed a north Cornish beach up as North Korea and the locals didn't show up to throw pasties onto the set.

Nationalism is for the weak of mind.

[Jason Edmunds]

@ Anon

I'm Welsh and they come here and film, flying any flag they like...

...except England, of course.

Mine's sheepskin, obviously.

[Matthew Sinclair]

Duh

Yeah....pride over the fact that they are ignoring a film that took place back in time when it WAS Bolivia (I would assume).

Morons.....

Nice economic hit they took me thinks.....

[Thomas]

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

And it helps tired franchises like Bond to limp on-and-on, albeit cribbing the latest style notes from less cynically created films every few years.

[Alejandro Zuñiga]

re: Duh

I bealive you're reading wrong...

That town was bolivian IN THE 19TH CENTURY (aka 1800)

I don't bealive James Bond can travel thru time...

Now... who's the moron???

[Adam Foxton]

Doesn't matter the punishment, short of death or torture.

Seriously- fine him, jail him whatever. He'll always be a REAL LIFE Bond Villian!

How freakin' cool is that?! I just hope Daniel Craig was the one who apprehended him with a witty remark (or ridiculous gadgetry)!

[Anonymous Coward]

Inconsistency

How the hell can you enter a private enclosure and create a public disorder?

[Aaron Gilliland]

Re: Inconsistency

Lubrication.

[Jon Tocker]

Film makers are forever coming here...

and pretending our country is somewhere else:

Columbia, Cambodia (all densely bush-clad hills look the same with some species of Helicopter gunship flying over them), Japan (Last Samurai), Middle Earth etc

I actually encountered what looked like a helicopter gunship (well, a smallish helicopter with a forward-mounted chain-gun) when I was riding my motorbike from Hamilton to Palmerston North. I did a quick double-take then shugged and thought "Nah, we don't have gunships in New Zealand". Some time later I saw that same area and the same gunship in a movie (admittedly, this time it was supposed to be set in New Zealand.)

Never heard any outcry from the local Maori (who're fiercely proud of the land and their connection to it) over their "whenua" being misrepresented and protrayed as war-torn Cambodia, drug-producing Columbia, Mount Fujiyama or The Shire, let alone any active protests.

Never had any problems with it myself, despite having my motorcycling interrupted by chaingun-totin' helicopters.

Icon because...

Agh, work it out yourself

[Pete]

Many a time...

scenes supposed to be set in Scotland have actually been filmed in Ireland. And have the Irish protested? Nope - they've coined the lolly and thanked the government for putting in place so many sweeteners for film-makers to make their films on the Emerald Isle. Sometimes people take films too seriously and life not seriously enough. Are we in the process of "amusing ourselves to death"?

Paris, because they've made some nice films there too...

[Anonymous Coward]

Savages

I say we steam on over there in which ever gunboat we have nereby and shell the town for a good few hours, or at least something that looks like the town that happens to be in range. We should then break for tea before getting the ruler, pens and maps out and begin redrawing their borders before settling down for dinner.

Before we leave we should then bill them for the cost of the disruption to the filming, the cost of the gunboat action, that shelling is expensive and not forgetting dinner too.

Black Helicopters - because nothing says imperialism like a black helicopter can.

[heystoopid]

The Franchise should have died last century !

The franchise is getting old and very tired very quickly and is now only a shadow of it's former glory days after the departure of Sean Connery , and is now only powered by special effects and crap less then credible story lines !

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: heystoopid The Franchise should have died last century !

Did ya not see Casino Royalle and its complete (almost) lack of gadgets, its acting and story or are you gona insist that it was rubbish as well.

The last Bond film was the best bond film since Golden Eye and it was a lot better than that. In fact its fighting for a space in my top 3, should i ever be bothered enough to have top three.

You must be an SNP supporter, get back to bragging about your free education and stuff.

[Daniel B.]

Filming!

Oh man, why do they do such a fuss about a *film* portraying a place like another country? Another James Bond flick I remember doing this was "Licence To Kill" with Veracruz portrayed as "Ishmus City", which gave me the giggles as they basically maintained everything as-is, even the licence plates were Mexican plates with "Ishmus City" in the place where the state designation would usually be.

On the other hand, I'd like to see what would be the reaction for locals if someone were to film on the Falkland Islands as a stand-in site for ... Argentina.

[Eleanor Rigby]

official residence

You all fail to notice that the flag was raised over the official residence of the highest political figure in the town. I can't think of a political figure anywhere that would take kindly to the flag of an opposing nation being flown above his/her home - can you imagine this happening in india/pakistan, iraq/kuwait, palestine/israel, croatia/serbia, anywhere else you care to mention?

Paris because her level of perception is eerily similar to the previous commentators'.