Paris Wants James Bond to Brawl in Versailles

French dream up grand canal duel, helicopter rescue
By Emily Rauhala,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2010 9:15 AM CDT
Paris Wants James Bond to Brawl in Versailles
Filming on the next Bond film is due to start in 2011. French civil servants hopes they'll choose to shoot at Versailles.    (AP Photo/Sony Pictures, Susie Allnutt, FILE)

A rowing duel in a canal and rooftop escape by helicopter—sounds like James Bond, but does it sound like Louis XIV? A team of French civil servants is pushing to bring Britain's most famous spy to Paris, and have written a storyline that puts .007 inside the Palace of Versailles. "It would be great to have James in the magnificent decor of the château," a rep for the local film commission tells the Telegraph.

Wooing James Bond is part of a campaign to lure Hollywood films to France, though some locals think pimping out palaces is a tad gauche: A 2008 show by Jeff Koons at Versailles sparked outrage. The film commission insists a bit of Bond would turn the palace into a "center of European artistic creation as it was in the time of Louis XIV." (More James Bond stories.)

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