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CMA CGM Loaned Two Boxships and a Terminal for James Bond Film Shoot

CMA CGM containers
Courtesy CMA CGM / EON Productions

Published Sep 19, 2021 6:00 PM by The Maritime Executive

For the 25th film in the long-running James Bond franchise, No Time to Die, director Cary Joji Fukunaga won access to some valuable assets for one of the movie's key moments. Number-three container carrier CMA CGM made two container ships and a transshipment terminal in Jamaica available for an extended shoot. In exchange for prominent coverage of the CMA CGM logo in the sequence, Fukunaga got to film the world's first known flight of an airplane underneath the gantry arms of STS cranes. 

To capture the shot (below), a film crew for EON Productions flew a helicopter on the other side of the row at high speed. It also temporarily occupied parts of CMA CGM's Kingston South Quay Terminal with camera gear, aerial booms and other equipment.

CMA CGM identified the container vessels used in the film shoot as the 2,200 TEU CMA CGM Fort Saint Georges and the 3,500 TEU CMA CGM Fort de France. The set also required 1,000 containers and the participation of a dozen crewmembers.

The project had corporate support at the very highest levels. A team led by Tanya Saadé Zeenny - executive officer of the CMA CGM Group and sister of CEO Rodolphe Saadé - headed up the operation, working with local staff in Kingston. 

The announcement did not reveal the date the sequence was shot, but the Jamaican segment of filming for No Time to Die was completed in April and May 2019, according to EON. The last segments of sound-stage filming wrapped in late 2019, before the pandemic hit. The film was complete and slated for release in April 2020, but like so many events, it was delayed for more than a year due to COVID-19. 

The action sequence at the Kingston terminal would be much harder to film today, given the ultra-tight availability of boxships and the infrastructure that serves them. Charter rates and asset prices for vessels in this size class have skyrocketed since last year. As of August, rates for vessels of 3,500 TEU in size were running at near-historic levels of $65,000 per day. 

The film debuts in cinemas on September 30 in the UK and on October 8 in the United States, but parts of the action sequence are available to view in a teaser clip released on Friday.