After "Golden Eye of 007" revived the 007 series of films, Kirk Cocoline acquired MGM and began preparations for the new 007, with a shooting budget of up to 110 million US dollars. The producer wanted to ask Martin Campbell, the director of "Golden Eye" to continue to lead, but his agent said Campbell did not want to direct two 007 films in succession. In September 1996, Roger Spottiswood became the director of the film.
MGM selected the script for the return of Hong Kong in January 1997. However, since the film will be released at the end of the year, the entire script has to be scrapped, and Ian Fleming's novel has been completely adapted. The prototype of "007 Empire of Tomorrow" originated from the outline of the story completed by Donald Wislake. The first draft of the script was written by "Golden Eye" screenwriter Bruce Fairstein. Spotty Wood, who took over, recruited seven Hollywood screenwriters to brainstorm ideas. And appointed Nicholas Meyer to rewrite the script. The first draft of the script was set during the return of Hong Kong, but former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who served as the adviser for the film, warned that choosing such a background was not a wise move, so he had to make temporary changes. On the first day of filming, the script for the film was still not ready.
Because George Lucas occupied the Leavesden Film Studios (Leavesden Film Studios) to shoot "Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Crisis", the film crew had to transform the abandoned factory into a studio nearby. In addition, they also used The 007 studio of Songlin Studio. Director Roger Spottiswood hoped to use computer special effects to complete the scene of the sudden drop outside the building, but in the end he still had to build a 7-story high set, which was filmed by real people. Since the second half of the film was set to take place in Vietnam, the producer began to negotiate with the Vietnamese government about the shooting. The crew originally planned to shoot some scenes in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but was rejected by the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture. The crew had to rush. To Thailand, I switched to Bangkok, Thailand for shooting, replacing Saigon with the street scenes of Bangkok.
