How ‘No Time to Die’ brought back a Bond legend

The silver coupe made its first appearance in Goldfinger over 40 years ago and has appeared in seven films since. Fox News recently explored the famous vehicle’s history with No Time to Die’s special effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, who was more than happy to share his secrets from the production process..

Having worked on six Bond films in his forty-year tenure with the series, Chris understands the importance of this iconic car... “It was a discussion with the director and producers about what they’d like to see in the film, and it very quickly became apparent that everybody wanted to see the DB5 back and not just in a cameo role, but in full combat mode.”

The first step of creating a starring role for the DB5 was a meeting with motor stalwart and inventor of the car, Aston Martin. The manufacturer asked how many of the super rare sports car would be needed for the production, to which Carobould’s team boldly responded, ‘Ten!’

After a moment of stunned silence, the next question was where the team would get those ten cars. “Do we buy 10 DB5s between one and two million [pounds] a pop? Probably not the best financial way of going about it. Do we go to owners to see if they will rent us their cars? Well, if I was an owner of a DB5, would I rent it to James Bond to do an action sequence? Probably not."

As an alternative, Aston Martin supplied two originals and built eight replicas for the production team to customise. From car chases to bullet proof glass, the car needed to fit perfectly within the No Time to Die narrative and with an army of replicas to work with, the film makers could do just that.

"They did a marvellous job, because they performed absolutely amazing[ly?]," Corbould said.

Several of the cars were fitted for stunt driving, while two were equipped with a host of gadgets that included smoke screens and a pair of mini guns that emerged from behind their headlights. Carbould said that he made over 14 trips to Italy to lay out the car’s scenes and that around 95% of what is seen on screen was real driving and practical effects rather than CGI taking over.