A futuristic domed residence for astronomers will be featured in the next James Bond film, serving as a hideout for a villain chased by Bond.

The building is called the Residencia, and is located in the mountains of Chile's Atacama Desert. It houses astronomers working at the nearby Paranal Observatory, which houses the world class Very Large Telescope (VLT) array of four 8.2-metre telescopes.

Much of the building is underground, but a 35-metre-wide glass dome lets in plenty of light. Beneath the dome, residents can relax in a swimming pool and stroll through a tropical garden. The building also contains 108 bedrooms, 22 offices, a restaurant with space for 200 people and a cinema.

A 2006 BBC story playfully described it as "a cross between a Bond villain's hideout and a university hall of residence".

The resemblance did not go unnoticed by the makers of the next Bond film.

"It is a true oasis and the perfect hideout for Dominic Greene, our villain, whom 007 is tracking in our new James Bond film," says the movie's producer Michael G Wilson.

The new Bond film, called Quantum of Solace, will debut on 31 October in the UK and on 7 November in the US and elsewhere.

In case you were wondering, the Residencia cost 12 million Euros to build, which is less than 2% of the overall cost of the VLT, according to the European Southern Observatory, which manages the facility.

This continues a long tradition of using observatories in movies. Probably the best known example is the movie Contact, which featured the Arecibo and Very Large Array radio telescopes, not just as backdrops but as integral parts of the story.

The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, US, has been used in umpteen movies, as it is conveniently located next door to Hollywood. These have included the recent Transformers movie, the first Terminator movie, and a previous Bond film, Goldeneye.

What's your favourite movie scene featuring an observatory or other space-related location from real life? Mine would have to be the scene shot in the Hayden Planetarium in Woody Allen's Manhattan.

David Shiga, online reporter (Image: Massimo Tarenghi/ESO)