Heineken Plans Major Integration With New Bond Flick

[Kristatos]

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow tweeted that Bond has already been turned into a roughneck, so who cares if he drinks beer?

[Mazer Rackham]

Yes, in some ways, the star may have lifted the veil just a teeny bit.

http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... omics-101/

I'm in shock. Taking time to listen to all that was said, read between the lines and come to a reasonable deduction -especially on this topic is rare. Doubly so for a Bond website.

Sony said they spent $400m take it to mean at least $400m on Quark/QOS, in general these movies cost around $300m, Brozza era it was closer to 230m to 250m, after GE at least 100m was going toward P&A (total cost after adjusting for product placement revenue). For any modern movie even without advertising prints alone is enough to keep from turning a profit.

Babs said about Sony at least they know how to spend money but it was bad business on their part and hers. Although she was the one to get hurt by it. She used no common sense pouring out money for QOS hand over fist, the margin for profit was gone. George Lucas as producer and director exercised restraint on his Star Wars budgets keeping them safely within the margins for profit and all his movies were guaranteed blockbusters, Babs facing the same decisions figured go for broke . Hopefully MGW had a "senior moment" at the presser, if Skyfall is 300m (or less) it has a chance to make money -just. If it is in the same neighborhood as Quark there is no way.

If MGW was saving face at the presser it'd be good news, remember these people are not beyond lying to look good for the moment even if they know the truth will come out later. 2006 the nasty Brozza was demanding too much money, him and his heavy FX budgets were too big they both had to go. Lo and behold the budget Bond arrived with Craig, CR cost the paltry sum of 70m or so it was believed for some time until it become clear that number was misdirection, using GBP instead of USD (CR cost more then DAD even with a budget actor). Sony had tired to say QOS would be under $200m with tax breaks and other incentives, turned out with those considerations QOS was $230m.

[Mazer Rackham]

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow tweeted that Bond has already been turned into a roughneck, so who cares if he drinks beer?

In a way. What is happening here is people are getting a visual they can't shake and they don't like it. They don't like it so much the studio is wasting time and money to combat it. Over all the problem is Crag because he is a roughneck, a Connery or Brosnan have the suave sophistication to sell diet soda without damaging their image, Craig doesn't. As they say the optics are bad.'

[Napoleon Solo]

Yes, in some ways, the star may have lifted the veil just a teeny bit.

http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... omics-101/

I'm in shock. Taking time to listen to all that was said, read between the lines and come to a reasonable deduction -especially on this topic is rare. Doubly so for a Bond website.
(snip)

A few other examples from the site:

What got confirmed, what didn't (for now) at the press blitz
http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... -some-not/


More reading between the lines (particularly comments about Dench's screen time)
http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... spoiler-2/

Barbara Broccoli draws a line in the sand:
http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... -the-sand/

Early handicapping of Skyfall's U.S. box office prospects:
http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... prospects/

[FormerBondFan]

She definitely looks like a b1tch in this picture.

[Blowfeld]

Q the $45 million for Heineken is correct?

Speaking of optics

http://www.freakingnews.com/James-Bond- ... -28996.asp

[bjmdds]

That's seems an exorbitant amount of dough for suds, don't you think?

[Kristatos]

Early handicapping of Skyfall's U.S. box office prospects:
http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... prospects/

Gee, I wonder who "Anonymous" could be on the comments thread

[Omega]

I was gonna guess BJ but since you confessed Kris...

So the MI6 reborn gang had a problem with a more realistic projection of SF opening weekend. I guess these guys know what it is like to be us now, lairs and cheats not worthy of the grace of Babs.

[bjmdds]

Nice work kris.

[Kristatos]

I was gonna guess BJ but since you confessed Kris...

Oops, no that wasn't a confession. I think it was BJ too. Who else refers to DC as Cr-egg?

[bjmdds]

[Capt. Sir Dominic Flandry]

Good work Kristatos with the Cr-egg comment on the blog

[Kristatos]

Good work Kristatos with the Cr-egg comment on the blog

Again, it wasn't me. I wasn't confessing, I meant that using the term "Cr-egg" was a bit of a giveaway.

[carl stromberg]

I laughed at your comment on the blog too Kristatos. I love your Cr-egg joke.

[bjmdds]

Kris, you are a riot Good work

[007]

I knew it was Kristatos as soon as I saw it. The Cr-egg reference completely gave him away.

[Blowfeld]

Job well done Kris.


Speaking of our friends, as Ian would say 'Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.'

This is beginning to get disconcerting another good piece on Bond and Heineken from the HMSS blog. Follow the link for the full story, photos, etc., and the flack they are getting. Getting flack, hey that's our job! We don't go down to where they work and... tell everyone how great Craig is? Well that sounded better in my head. Point is doing this kind of piece is our gig, it don't seem right to have someone else taking a slightly contrarian view, backing it up with facts and making people uneasy by remembering the things EON said earlier, at least not without a hearty "Death to Craig" at the end followed by a chorus of amens.

http://hmssweblog.wordpress.com/2012/04 ... -big-deal/
How did the 007-Heineken deal become such a big deal?
Posted on April 20, 2012 by The HMSS Editors

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.[spoil]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.”[/spoil]

[carl stromberg]

Frank Booth would not approve of the Heineken product placement.

[video][/video]

[Kristatos]

Meh, it seems my "follow the bear" gag on Facebook doesn't actually work. I tried serching for the ad on YouTube, and it seems the "follow the bear" campaign was for Hofmeister, not Heineken as I had remembered it.

Perhaps they will produce an ad where Daniel Craig drinks a pint of Heineken and becomes a suave, sophisticated character. Heineken refreshes the parts etc.