News: Spectre of bad luck hovers over latest 007 film

THE 2002 Bond movie Die Another Day featured a character called Jinx, played by Halle Berry. No need for her on the set of the latest instalment, Spectre. Footage has emerged of yet another car-related slice of bad luck, which has led to murmurings that the 24th Bond movie is, well, jinxed.

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Shot on the streets of Rome, the footage shows a chase sequence in which Bond’s Aston Martin DB10 attempts to evade a villain’s Jaguar C-X75. It starts off well enough, with powerslides galore, but comes to an abrupt halt when the Jaguar narrowly misses the braking DB10 and apparently almost runs over a member of the film crew.

The near miss is the latest in a series of mishaps to affect production. Before filming even began, nine cars, including several Range Rovers, were stolen from a car park in Germany, apparently by thieves who hacked into the keyless entry system.

Daniel Craig, the actor who plays the superspy, banged his head and required medical attention when the Aston Martin he was in hit a pothole in Rome. Filming has also been hampered by the unexpected rumble of car tyres over cobblestones interfering with the recording of audio inside the car. And last month two stuntmen were injured in Austria during the filming of a car chase.

The name’s James. Calamity James.