OK, we're just going to come out and say it – maybe God isn't the biggest fan of Audioslave. It makes sense; just a few days after the Audioslave guy got the Casino Royale theme-tune nod, the Casino Royale set burns down.

The historic Albert R Broccoli 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios caught fire yesterday and, while 60 firefighters struggled to control the blaze, they couldn't stop it from completely destroying the set. Needless to say, most people initially thought that the fire was some kind of typically understated James Bond stunt, but suspicions were raised when a blonde show-off in a tuxedo didn't immediately burst out of the studio wearing a union jack-coloured jetpack shooting bazookas at a black helicopter flying off into the distance.

To call the production of Casino Royale 'troubled' would be an understatement comparable to calling Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt 'slightly overexposed'. The list of cock-ups that have hit Casino Royale is as long as it is famous, as it includes the James Bond casting cock-up, the everyone else casting cock-up, the tooth-punch cock-up and the Chris Cornell theme-tune cock-up. And now, if that wasn't enough, the studio where a lot of Casino Royale was shot has burnt down. According to The Independent:

Witnesses who saw the blaze at the Bond sound stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire yesterday said flames leapt dozens of feet into the air. It took around 60 firefighters to bring the fire under control, leaving the iconic building blackened, with its roof buckling.

Of course, what with it being a James Bond sound stage, it was all done up to look like Venice on the inside. So you'd assume that all the water that was in there would have helped to quell the fire but – oh no – this is James Bond Venice, so it  naturally contained 20 great big exploding gas canisters which only exacerbated the flames, and left the firefighters no choice but to leave a 200 metre exclusion zone around the studio. Fire Brigade spokesman Fraser Pearson said:

"It's sad to see such an iconic building in this sorry state. [The building] was 100 per cent engulfed in fire. It's got the remains of the 007 logo outside. It's now blackened and buckled at the top."

The fire won't affect the November release date of Casino Royale as filming is thought to have ended for the movie last week, but there's a chance that the already-hyped Casino Royale sequel might be pushed back from its May 2008 release date. As to the official cause of the fire, the investigation continues, although it's thought that it may have something to do with that North Korean general who had his face changed to look like a sneering English ginger posho that lives in a giant ice castle on the North Pole who built that gigantic space laser to hold the world to ransom with. Or a faulty piece of electrics. Or something.

Read more:

Blaze Destroys Casino Royale Film Set At Pinewood – Independent

[story by Stuart Heritage]