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James Bond Portrait Gallery
Daniel Craig is seen in a tuxedo and the internet explodes
Posted on May 29, 2018 by The Spy Commander
Daniel Craig was photographed in a tuxedo and the internet exploded. Welcome to Bond 25 pre-production.
The actor, set to play James Bond for a fifth time, was in Cardona, Spain. TMZ rushed out a story saying the appearance "appears to be the start of filming for his fifth 007 flick … and a production assistant clearly wanted to keep it under wraps."
Except….
The Daily Mail, a tabloid not usually known as the voice of reason, had a different explanation: Filming a Heineken commercial. The paper said Crig was "spotted channeling the spy as he filmed scenes for a new Heineken commercial in Spain on Tuesday."
A Spanish outlet, Regio 7, had a similar explanation. According to a rough Google translation, Regio 7 said, "The popular English actor Daniel Craig, known for his role as James Bond, has been today in Cardona to participate in the shooting of an announcement by Heineken, according to this newspaper. The City Council, however, explained that it is not 'authorized' or to confirm or deny information that was circulated today among the people's neighbors, who have gathered in different parts of the town."
Heineken has had a commercial relationship with the 007 film series for some time now. There was a fuss about Heineken's product placement in Skyfall, although the literary James Bond was known to have a beer now and then.
One tidbit was supplied in a tweet by the MI6 James Bond website. It said that Craig's contract to play 007 "prohibits him from appearing onscreen in a tuxedo unless approved."
Regardless, given what happened today, you now have an idea what it's going to be like until fall 2019, when Bond 25 is scheduled to be released.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 25, Daily Mail, Daniel Craig, Heineken, MI6 James Bond website, Regio 7, TMZ |	Leave a comment »
Heineken evokes 007 in promotional video
Posted on September 20, 2015 by The Spy Commander
UPDATE II (Sept. 21): Reader Frank Coronado traces the source music back further, to a piece called "The Hellraisers" composed by Syd Dale. See his comment below.
UPDATE: Reader Scott Hand pointed out that part of the music from this video was originally produced for the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon that aired on ABC.
ORIGINAL POST: Heineken — or Heineken (R) as the European beer brand prefers to be listed as — has posted a promotional video with Daniel Craig.
The MI 6 James Bond website posted about this earlier. The promotional video has a number of 007 memes, including the late actor Herve Villechaize (who played secondary villain Nick Nack in 1974's The Man With The Golden Gun) showing up through CGI magic. There's a reference to Oddjob's deadly hat as well.
Presumably, this video is part of a SPECTRE promotion, a way to defer the $300 million-plus production cost of the 24th James Bond movie.
You can view the video below:
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Daniel Craig, Heineken, Herve Villechaize, SPECTRE, The Man with the Golden Gun |	1 Comment »
The winner for Skyfall product placement
Posted on June 18, 2013 by Bill Koenig
Daniel Craig's 007 has a Macallan
BRAND CHANNEL, a Web site devoted to marketing, has determined the winner of companies who struck product placement deals in Skyfall. Who finished atop the heap? None other than Macallan Scotch Whisky.
But no brand got more exposure than The Macallan whisky, which appeared in several scenes and was even called out by name as one of Bond's particular favorites. All the better, the placement didn't cost Macallan a (Money)penny. "When the final edit of the Skyfall came out our Macallan director was a little nervous about the drink being associated with the scene where Daniel Craig takes a dram then fires a gun—as obviously being an alcoholic beverage it is important for us not to be associated with violence, crime, and underage drinking," Lucy McQueen, the public affairs assistant for Macallan-owner Edrington Group, told brandchannel.
Front Row Analytics, the analysis division of Front Row Marketing Services, estimates the value of Macallan's appearance in Skyfall at $8.98 million. And that's just the theatrical value through January 2013. Front Row, which uses proprietary analytics to put a dollar value on eyeballs and other subjective criteria, further projects value of $473,647 (DVD / Digital) and $256,667 (future broadcast airings) for Macallan. But there's more.
"The brand value that Macallan has and will receive over the lifetime of the film, is unlike other product placements," said Eric Smallwood, Senior Vice President of Front Row Marketing Services & Front Row Analytics.
The article notes the "50-year" Macallan in the film was a 1962 vintage, meaning it was a 25-year-old bottle of Scotch. Getting some of the latter costs about $2,600. An actual 50-year-old bottle would cost $7,800. Either is a big step up from Heineken, the main beer sponsor of Skyfall.
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE. The story also evaluates product placement of other 2012 movies, including Argo and Ted.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 23, Brand Channel, Heineken, James Bond Films, Macallan Scotch Whisky, Skyfall, Skyfall product placement, Skyfall's Heineken product-placement deal |	1 Comment »
New edition of 007 drinks book now available in U.S.
Posted on November 2, 2012 by The Spy Commander
"This sounds like valuable information, James."
The second edition of The Complete Guide to the Drinks of James Bond is now available in the U.S. and can be had for free for the next few days. The new edition includes updates for Skyfall, the 23rd 007 film.
Also, the book's author, David Leigh, who runs the James Bond Dossier Web site, assures everyone that 007 hasn't become a Heineken-only guy despite the movie's widely publicized product-placement deal.
Here's part of the text of a press release:
To help celebrate the eagerly awaited US release of "Skyfall", the second edition of "The Complete Guide to the Drinks of James Bond" by David Leigh is available for free for a limited period from Amazon.com, Amazon UK and Amazon Europe.
The book, which is exclusive to Amazon's Kindle stores, includes updated information on the drinks from "Skyfall" and can be downloaded for free between November 3 and November 7 2012.
David, who also runs The James Bond Dossier, says, 'many people were unhappy at the announcement earlier this year that James Bond would be seen drinking Heineken beer in "Skyfall". However, this really isn't a big deal for a number of reasons; first, 007 drank beer in several of the books; second, don't think that he only
drinks beer in "Skyfall"; and third, while most people associate vodka martinis and champagne with 007, he actually drinks more whisky in the novels anyway'.
This updated edition of "The Complete Guide to the Drinks of James Bond" covers drinks from all Ian Fleming's novels and short stories, as well as the film series that celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. It takes a detailed look at the spirits, cocktails and wines enjoyed by 007, providing background information as well as book and movie references throughout.
For more information, just CLICK HERE for David Leigh's author page on Amazon.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Amazon, Amazon.com, Bond 23, David Leigh, Heineken, James Bond Films, Skyfall, Skyfall's Heineken product-placement deal, The Complete Guide to the Drinks of James Bond |	Leave a comment »
Here's a most unliklely critic of the Skyfall-Heineken (R) deal
Posted on April 25, 2012 by The Spy Commander
See for yourself:
(We spotted this originally on the message boards of the MI6 James Bond fan Web site.)
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 23, Heineken, James Bond Films, MI6 fan Web site, Michael G. Wilson, product placement, Skyfall, Skyfall's Heineken product-placement deal |	Leave a comment »
How did the 007-Heineken deal become such a big deal?
The flap over Heineken's product-placement deal with Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond movie, isn't going away. How'd that happen? After all, James Bond drank beer in some of Ian Fleming's original stories. He had beer in some movies, as recently as 2008's Quantum of Solace, the most recent 007 flick.
"James, was this beer deal such a good idea?"
"Pass me a Heineken, Felix!"
With 20-20 hindsight, it's not that surprising. Here's what led to the situation:
The financial conditions of two studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which owns half the 007 franchise, recently was in bankruptcy court, emerging as a smaller company. It ended up cutting a deal with Sony Corp. to distribute Skyfall (and the next 007 film). But Sony has financial problems of its own. That meant:
Skyfall was going to rely heavily on product placement: The Sunday Times of London reported 11 month ago that MGM and Sony were looking to product placement deals to supply as much as one-third of Skyfall's budget (this link shows the version of the Sunday Times story that appeared in The Australian). Months later, Skyfall star Daniel Craig tactily admitted that product placement was vital to Skyfall.
As a result, the media and some fans were on red alert: Bond movies had been criticized before for what seemed like excessive product placement. Some fans noted how 1979's Moonraker included plenty of plugs for Marlboro cigarettes, British Airways and 7-Up. The 2006 Casino Royale movie, Craig's debut as Bond, was noted for how it shoehorned a reference for Omega watches into a key scene with Craig's Bond and Eva Green's Vesper Lynd. Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who had done a film on product placement, included 007 films in his critique.
The initial announcement of Heineken's Skyfall deal wasn't handled well: Heineken's Feb. 8 press release announcing the product-placement deal had a lot of chest-thumping by both the company and Eon Productions, which produces the 007 movies:
Alexis Nasard, Chief Commercial Officer of HEINEKEN said: "When two great brands like Heineken® and James Bond join together, excitement is guaranteed. We are proud of our long standing partnership. The trust that we have built has allowed us to take the partnership to a new level by linking SKYFALL directly with our award winning global 'Open Your World' campaign. We are confident our activation plan will ignite the conversation with our consumers and film viewers."
Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the SKYFALL producers added: "The level of collaboration with Heineken® is unprecedented. We are excited by the global reach and the creativity that the Heineken® team is able to deliver."
Of course, Heineken and Eon could have mentioned that 007 had consumed beer in Ian Fleming's novels and Eon's movies. Evidently, they were so busy discussing how wonderful they were, that fact just couldn't be squeezed into the press release. Make no mistake, when a press release quotes an executive, those quotes are approved by the executive ahead of time. This wasn't an oversight. This is the message Heineken and Eon wanted to get across. Translation of said message: "We're wonderful, you're lucky to have us."
Timing is everything: In this case, the timing was bad. Yes, Bond drank more than just martinis on the page and on the screen. (In Live And Let Die, director Guy Hamilton and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz made a point of having first-time 007 Roger Moore drink bourbon to avoid comparisons with Sean Connery.) But Bond was, for better or worse, identified with martinis in movies.
In addition, the Casino Royale reboot shook things up. The movie turned the traditional Bond formula on its head as we watched a thuggish Bond learn to be a gentleman. They could have chose to shown how a gentleman learned to become tough (this is not an original observation on our part) but the filmmakers didn't take that approach. During Casino Royale's marketing, we were told, the film shows "how James became Bond." We were told by the end of the movie, the James Bond we all knew would emerge. Then, in 2008's Quantum of Solace, we were told that James wasn't Bond just yet. Hence, the gunbarrel scene, again, wasn't at the start of the movie.
As a result, in the last six years, Bond fans have processed at lot of change. The Heineken deal meant yet more change and that's been the theme of much of the coverage since the deal was first announced. Maud Adams, who appeared in two 007 films, said "this has gone too far. Martini was something elegant when I served Roger Moore and it is elegant to this day."
Some fans say this was all planned by Heineken to get publicity. We doubt it. Most companies don't like publicity where people dump on you. This probably will blow over. Then again, we first thought this would have blown over by now.
UPDATE: According to A YAHOO! MOVIES POST blog post, Michael G. Wilson told reporters in Mexico (he was speaking from the U.K.) that: "Bond would sup Heineken in the film, but added that he would drink Vodka Martinis as well."
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Barbara Broccoli, Bond 23, Casino Royale, Daniel Craig, Eon Productions, Eva Green, Heineken, James Bond Films, Maud Adams, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Michael G. Wilson, Moonraker, product placement, product placement in 007 movies, Quantum of Solace, Roger Moore, Skyfall, Skyfall's Heineken product-placement deal, Sony Corp. |	6 Comments »
Daniel Craig's 007 economics 101
By this point, most James Bond fans are tired about reading about the Heineken product-placement deal with Skyfall and, based on recent remarks, it appears Daniel Craig is, too. But the Skyfall star may have provided a small lesson on the economics of James Bond movies.
Daniel Craig: teacher of 007 movie economics for a day
Craig, as part of a publicity blitz, spoke to the U.K. edition of the Huffington Post and the U.S. Moviefone Web site (both are part of AOL and carried the same story). In THAT INTERVIEW the Skyfall star said the following:
"We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie. The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn't do it. It's unfortunate but that's how it is…This movie costs a lot of money to make, it costs as nearly as much again if not more to promote, so we go where we can. (emphasis added)
That's not a lot of detail and others in the movie business have said similar things for a long time. However, it's more detail than the makers of 007 movies get into. Usually they say it costs a lot and let it go at that.
So let's take a look at how this rough calculation applied to the most recent Bond film, 2008's Quantum of Solace. That movie had a reported budget of $230 million. To keep the math easy, let's double that figure to add in the promotional costs. That gets you to $460 million.
Quantum's woroldwide box office was just shy of $592 million, the second-best ever gross for the 50-year series. Now, that's in unadjusted dollars. Then again, studios don't deal in adjusted dollars; they deal with box office in the hear and now. Anyway, sounds like Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer must have done OK, after all that's more than $130 million than the combined production-promotional cost.
Except, the studios didn't keep all that $592 million. Theaters got a cut; typically, that's tiny at the start and becomes more the longer a movie plays. Also, while the details aren't public, the studios had to split whatever profits there were with Eon Productions, which controls half the 007 franchise and actually produces the films.
We don't pretend to know the final figures, but the profit, if any, may have been relatively small for Sony and MGM. Last month, MGM disclosed it lost money on The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, also starring Craig, which had a $100 million production budget (and presumably similar sized outlay for promtion) with a worldwide box office of $231 million. Like both Quantum of Skyfall, that was a joint Sony/MGM deal.
Looking ahead to Skyfall, Eon co-bosses Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said in November there had been no budget cuts for Skyfall. If Skyfall's budget matches the reported $230 million budget of Skyfall, that would also be a combined $460 million production and promotional cost. Skyfall would need to at least match Quantum's box office for it not to be viewed as a disappointment.
Thus, product-placement deals — and the Bond series is hardly a stranger to them — are a way to hedge bets. That's especially true for Skyfall, where Sony is having financial troubles and MGM emerged from bankruptcy not that long ago.
Fans may think James Bond will go on forever and that product-placement deals are a nuisance. And yes, there are other sources of revenue (though falling prices for DVDs are eating into that). Still, Daniel Craig lifted the veil just a tiny bit on a more complicated financial picture.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: 007 film economics, Barbara Broccoli, Bond 23, Columbia Pictures, Daniel Craig, Eon Productions, Heineken, Huffington Post, James Bond Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Michael G. Wilson, Moviefone, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Skyfall's Heineken product-placement deal, Sony Corp. |	1 Comment »
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