Movies - BMW films

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The BMW film series The Hire began as a series of five short films (each about eight minutes long) produced for the Internet in summer 2001. The films were directed by popular and aspiring directors. All starred Clive Owen as "The Driver". Of course, each film's story highlighted the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles. The first five films, as well as the Ben Younger-directed interludes, were executive-produced by David Fincher.

History

The series proved to be immensely popular, and BMW produced a free DVD of the series, including extra features. At first, the DVD was not even marketed. A few copies were distributed to some BMW dealerships and automobile magazines, but they were in limited supply. Many dealerships had no idea that BMW had even made promotional films. To request a DVD from BMW's site, one had to visit the help center of the and email one's mailing address to the webmaster. Copies were slow to arrive at first, and as the method of obtaining the disc was spread solely by word of mouth, copies were highly prized. Discs were sold for large sums on eBay. Later, BMW sold the DVD directly through their website and a telephone number.

The first few pressings of the disc included all five films, but subsequent issues did not include The Follow because of rights issues (it is rumored that Forest Whitaker approved the film only for Internet distribution, not for any other venue).

After the films' success, BMW produced three more films in 2002, this time executive produced by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott, and called them "Season 2". All three featured BMW's newly introduced Z4 roadster, and Clive Owen returned as The Driver.

BMW sold a DVD compilation of all eight films, including The Follow, for a nominal shipping fee (which was identical for any shipping address worldwide) via the BMW Films website. The films are no longer available (the distribution ended October 21st, 2005).

Dark Horse Comics has published a comic adaptation based on the main character of the films.

Details

The first five BMW films:

Ambush
* Directed by John Frankenheimer
* Featured the BMW 7-Series
Chosen
* Directed by Ang Lee
* Featured the BMW 5-Series
The Follow
* Directed by Wong Kar-wai
* Featured the BMW 3-Series and the Z3 roadster
Star
* Directed by Guy Ritchie (Madonna
, as "The Star", is uncredited)
* Featured the BMW M5
Powder Keg
* Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
* Featured the BMW X5

The next three films:

Hostage
* Directed by John Woo
Ticker
* Directed by Joe Carnahan
Beat The Devil
* Directed by Tony Scott

Nissan

Nissan tried to capitalize on the popularity of the BMW films by producing their own short film featuring their newly reintroduced 350Z. The film was titled The Run and was directed by John Bruno (also worked on True Lies
, The Abyss
and Terminator 2: Judgment Day
). The film was shown in theaters before feature films in November 2002. It was deeply influenced by underground racing classics such as "getaway in stockholm", which feature car mounted cameras as a high performance vechile speeds through a tight and stone paved european city on twilight. Nissan offered a DVD of the film for $9.95. However, The Run was never as popular as the BMW films.

Influences

The Transporter
(2002), starring Jason Statham was based on the BMW's The Hire (Statham's character, Frank Martin, drove a 1999 BMW 750i in the first movie, and an Audi A8L W12 in the 2005 sequel)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for BMW films ]

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Movies - BMW films

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Nissan

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