Roger Deakins confirmed on May 1 that he’ll be director of photography for Bond 23 in a posting on his own Web site.
This is all he said:
Yes, I can say that I am doing the next ‘Bond’ film. It is early days and the film won’t shoot until November.
Deakins’s comment seems to verify a comment Judi Dench made about a November start of production for Bond 23. The film, Daniel Craig’s long-delayed third outing as Bond, will be directed by Sam Mendes and has a release date of Nov. 9, 2012.
UPDATE: The Sunday Times of London reports that Bond 23 will have a record amount of product placement — enough to cover one-third of its production budget. An excerpt:
Under a deal struck between the MGM studio and the film’s distributor, Sony, $45 million will be raised from companies wanting their brands displayed on screen, says a New York marketing executive.
The figure is twice the previous record, held by Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, released in 2002. Lexus, Bulgari and American Express together paid about $20m to appear in the film.
The Sunday Times Web site is subscription only. However, The Australian newspaper’s Web site is running the article so you can view it BY CLICKING HERE.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 23, Bond 23 to get one-third of budget through product placement, Bond 23 to have record product placement, Daniel Craig, James Bond Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Roger Deakins, Roger Deakins confirms he'll photograph Bond 23, Sam Mendes, Sony, The Sunday Times |
The Spy Command 
Ridiculous and a bit distressing news regarding the product placement. Product placement in films should only reflect a real-life touch. When such practice becomes a distraction (See “Moonraker” and a couple others to a somewhat lesser extent), the film itself suffers.
I’m not happy about this development. Not at all.
The product placement thing is annoying… things like the Powerade placement in one of the Matrix sequels and Coke Zero in ‘Scott Pilgrim’. (just kidding about that one, it was a # joke and not so annoying)
But I was particularly annoyed by the few blatant product placement shots in ‘Casino Royale’… they’re Sony products (Ericsson phone, Blu-ray disc and Vaio laptop) and it’s not too surprising since it’s a Sony/Columbia film, but it really caught me off guard for some reason.
As for ‘Moonraker’, I must agree wholeheartedly… I mostly only remember the billboard (amusing moment, so I almost forgive it) and the big 7-Up sign, but everytime I watch it there seem to be a few new nits to pick.