Late last night (our time) the BBC reported that the famous Albert R. Broccoli stage has burnt down for the second time in its 30 year history. It took 8 fire trucks to put out the blaze. Latest reports state that the roof of the building has collapsed.
The stage was constructed specifically for the supertanker scenes for the 1970’s flick The Spy Who Loved Me. At the time there was no stage large enough to hold the massive set so Broccoli simply told the production designer, Ken Adam to build the set then design the sound stage around the set.
Then in 1984 when A View To A Kill was beginning principal filming, the stage burnt down during filming of Ridley Scott’s Legend. It took 3 weeks demolish what was left of the stage and the stage was rebuilt in 14 weeks while filming of other scenes in A View To A Kill took place.
I wonder if it will be rebuilt. What interests me more than anything else is if it does get rebuilt, will the use more modern construction techniques? It would be sad to see the worlds largest soundstage and an important piece of British cinema history lost again do to cost cutting.
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