Morgan Spurlock criticizes Bond 23’s product placement

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock who once took McDonald’s to task, has come out with a new documentary about movie product placement called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Oops. Correction: Palm Pom Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Anyway, during an interview with NPR, Spurlock noted the planned Bond 23 product placement — to be used to fund a third of the production budget — may be a bit high.

To listen to the story, JUST CLICK HERE. The Bond 23 reference doesn’t occur until after the 11:00 mark but the entire interview is probably worth your time.

Roger Deakins confirms he’ll photograph Bond 23; next 007 film to have record product placement, Sunday Times says

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.