The thunderous announcement of the choice of Matera as the set of the latest 007 film starring Daniel Craig, in 2019 was greeted locally with an incredible excitement.
No one in Matera believed they could see the world’s most famous secret agent’s Aston Martin speeding around the town. Yet, it happened. The monumental production crew, brought to the city of the Sassi by the producer Enzo Sisti, former creator of the Materan triumph of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion”, arrived to Matera in September 2019 and remained for over a month. In addition to the Sassi, the chasings and shootings of 007 have made much of the historic center off-limits.
The plot of the story is about Bond arriving to Matera – after having retired in Jamaica – on the trail of a friend who sent him an SOS. It is the traditional and thundering incipit to which 007 aficionados are used.
From the belvedere of piazzetta Pascoli, in the middle of via Ridola, the scaffolding that will support the hotel room where Bond will stay in the film, begin to appear. It is one of the most beautiful views of the Sassi. Here – between via Buozzi, piazza San Pietro Caveoso, via Madonna delle Virtù and via D’Addozio – the agent in His Majesty’s secret service will have to defend himself from constant ambushes that will go as far as the central Piazza Vittorio Veneto and via XX Settembre, passing through Piazza Duomo, during a religious ceremony. While on the Murgia plateau, a cemetery will even be rebuilt.
The Matera people, this time, had one more reason to wait for the arrival of the last Bond at the cinema, but have not considered the Covid. The release was postponed from April to October 2020, then to October 2021.
The film hits theaters on September 30, one day early, and is yet another consecration of Matera on the big screen, this time in the role of Matera itself.
e