James Bond stuntman crashes in Istanbul bazaar

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A stuntman in the new James Bond film "Skyfall" now shooting in Istanbul lost control of his motorcycle and smashed into the window of a 330-year-old shop in the city's 15th-century Grand Bazaar, Turkish media said on Monday.

The stuntman swerved to avoid hitting extras while careering through the Grand Bazaar at high speed, the NTV news channel said, but then crashed into the jewellery shop and smashed its crystal glass window.

"It is very nice for the Grand Bazaar to be chosen as a location for shooting this kind of movie. But the bazaar's administration ... didn't notify us the shooting would be like this," said Mete Boybeyi, the owner of the shop which once served members of the Ottoman court from the nearby palace.

"This place is regulated by the Council of Monuments. We can't even change our window without their permission," he said.

The bureaucracy involved in replacing the window would take quite some time, Boybeyi said, and that would mean the shop would remain shut and a loss of revenue.

"No one from the movie crew came to ask 'what are your losses?'," Boybeyi said. "We filed a complaint at the police station."

Skyfall, due for release in October this year, is the 23rd film in the popular and lucrative Bond series. Full details of the plot are a fiercely guarded secret, but in the film, producers say, "Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her".

The 1963 Bond film "From Russia with Love" and the 1999 Bond film "The World is Not Enough" were also filmed on location in Istanbul, one of the world's most historic cities which sits on the banks of the Bosphorus dividing Europe and Asia.

(Writing by Seltem Iyigun; Editing by Jon Hemming)