OUTLOOK - When the production team behind the new 007 flick needed an airplane for the world's most famous spy to fly, they picked up the phone and called Jenson........Roland Jenson.
The Outlook native, who runs Cloud 9 Airspray Ltd., had advertised his 1973 Cessna 185 for sale in an aviation publication, and he tells The Outlook that it wasn't too long before he got a phone call from someone interested in the aircraft.
"I'd advertised it in a publication for sale," said Roland. "They phoned me and talked about it, and inevitably they purchased it. They didn't reveal who was calling immediately, and it wasn't until the sale was finalized, which only took a week or so. Once it was finalized, they revealed what the airplane was going to be used for."
The plane, bought by the production team for just under $1 million, can now be seen in action being flown by James Bond himself in the newest film, 'No Time to Die'.
As crews were gearing up to shoot, the COVID pandemic managed to put a temporary pause on the movie, as Jenson says he was contacted about the plane almost three years ago when the film was getting ready to go into production.
"The only reason why it wasn't released was because of COVID," said Jenson, on the movie being delayed. "I delivered the plane to the purchasers on March 25, 2019. I'd taken it that winter down to Arizona to do some work on it in the wintertime, and from Arizona, I flew it to Lakeland, Florida for them, and that's where I dropped it off. Then they did what they had to do to the airplane to get it ready for the movie."
Roland says he hadn't used the Cessna aircraft before it was purchased by the Bond filmmakers.
"I never used it at all," he said. "We bought it and it needed some work done to it, and we spent a year and a half working on it. I was going to put it on floats and use it privately, but that never happened."
Now, after having seen the new Bond movie and witnessing his former plane in action on the big screen, Jenson says he was surprised at how much of it he saw.
"Actually, I thought there was more airtime than I originally thought there was going to be!" he said. "There were three really good clips of it and one that I thought was kind of fast. Daniel Craig was the pilot and flew it, and whether he really did or not, I don't know. He was in the pilot seat, anyhow. I think he made a comment or something like, 'How do you start this thing?' or something like that."
The scenes in which the plane is featured take place in Jamaica, and Jenson says it felt like a quick turnaround after he first delivered it. After everything was shot and the cameras had stopped rolling, he says the plane now sits somewhere in the Washington state area.
"The plane was used in Jamaica, that's where they shot all the footage," said Roland. "It wasn't very long as I delivered it in March and they had the airplane back in Jamaica in June. They'd changed the paint scheme on it again and put it up for sale. Four airline pilots from Seattle purchased the airplane, and today, it sits in the Seattle area."
Jenson says that seeing the connection to this province and the Outlook area in a Hollywood blockbuster is a real treat, and he's getting comments on it seemingly everywhere he goes.
"It was nice to see small town Saskatchewan hit the big screen," he said. "It doesn't matter where I've been since the movie's come out, there's not a day goes by that somebody doesn't comment on it to me."
Local moviegoers can check out the plane being flown by James Bond as 'No Time to Die' starts playing at the Reel Theatre in Outlook this coming weekend.
