Skyfall and Oscar nominations: glass half full or empty?

Skyfall composer Thomas Newman

For James Bond fans, this year’s Oscars ended a long 007 drought. Yet, fans on social media had a very mixed reaction.

On the bright side, Skyfall secured five nominations, the most for any 007 film. The previous best for a Bond movie was 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me with three. Not so bright: no nomination for Best Picture and no nomination for director Sam Mendes. In other words, fans wanted more.

Here’s a look at some of the reaction we saw among 007 fans via social media.

Thomas Newman got nominated for best score but John Barry never did for a 007 movie? Outrageous! Newman has been nominated for several movies, with Skyfall being the latest. John Barry won five Oscars but never got nominated for a 007 score, even though he established the Bond music template.

A couple of thoughts: in theory, Oscar nominators are supposed to only consider scores for a single year of movies. The 2012 nominators weren’t in a position to do a “make good” for Barry because, well, he’s no longer alive. Also, there’s probably very little overlap between those who voted to nominate Newman and those who passed over Barry in the 1960s. It doesn’t mean that Newman’s score is better than Barry’s work.

Skyfall deserved a Best Picture nomination. Why didn’t it get one? There had been a buzz that Skyfall could have gotten in. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences can nominate as many as 10 movies for the Best Picture honor. U.K. BOOKIES GAVE SKYFALL EVEN ODDS. The Whatculture Web site on Jan. 3 offered up TEN REASONS IT THOUGHT SKYFALL WAS A CONTENDER FOR A NOMINATION.

It didn’t happen. The academy only nominated nine movies. The academy tends to be pretty tight lipped. But keep this in mind: Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant and Peter O’Toole never got a competitive Oscar (Grant and O’Toole did eventually get honorary Oscars). With any group, such as the academy, there are internal politics, relationships, etc., that come into play. If you really believe Skyfall (and for that matter director Sam Mendes) really deserved a nomination, well, don’t let the Oscars get you down.

It’s too bad Skyfall only got technical nominations. Cinematography (where Skyfall’s Roger Deakins got nominated) and score actually are as much artistic as they are technical. (Skyfall also got nominations for best song, best sound editing and best sound mixing.)

Lewis Gilbert, in the documentary Inside You Only Live Twice, referred to Freddie Young (who photographed the fifth 007 film) as one of the great artists of British cinema. The director frames the shot, but the director of photography, though his or her lighting, greatly affects the look of a film. It’s not uncommon for DOPs to make the jump to directing. Music, meantime, has a big impact on the emotional feel of a movie.

Skyfall sets 007 record for Oscar nominations

UPDATE II: Skyfall broke The Spy Who Loved Me’s 35-year record for 007 Oscar nominations. The 2012 007 film received five nomiantions: song, cinematography, score, sound editing and sound mixing.

The Spy Who Loved Me was the previous record holder with three: score, song and art director/set decoration. It won none. The last Bond film to get an Oscar was 1965’s Thunderball for John Stears’s special effects.

UPDATE: Skyfall’s Roger Deakins was nominated for best cinematography, according to OFFICIAL OSCAR WEB SITE. Thomas Newman was nominated for best score.

ORIGINAL POST: Skyfall’s title song has nominated for an Oscar for best song, snapping a 007 drought for nominations. The last 007 film to get a nomination was 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, also for best song.

The song, written by Adele and Paul Epworth, was the only nomination the 23rd James Bond movie received during an announcement ceremony. There had been speculation that Skyfall might secure a best picture nomination but that didn’t occur.

The ceremony did not cover all categories.

Skyfall’s Oscar campaign and its quirks

Skyfall’s Oscar campaign puts forth Daniel Craig “for your consideration” to Oscar voters.

Sony Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer definitely are pressing to secure Oscar nominations for Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond movie. The studios are buying ads on entertainment news sites such as Deadline Hollywood, with rotating banner ads listing possible Oscar-worthy performers and crew “for your consideration.”

Perhaps the most detailed list in the Skyfall Oscar campaign is a list of suggested nominees on THE FILM’S OFFICIAL WEB SITE. It urges that Skyfall be considered for:

Best Picture (Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli; producers receive the Best Picture Oscar)

Best Director (Sam Mendes)

Best Adapted Screenplay (emphasis added, which we’ll discuss in a moment, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan)

Best Actor (Daniel Craig); Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Albert Finney); Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench, Berenice Marlohe and Naomie Harris)

Various crew categories including cinematography (Roger Deakins), editing (Stuart Baird), original score (Thomas Newman) and song (Adele and Paul Epworth).

A few questions:

Adapted screenplay? Adapted from what? The on-screen credit reads, “Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan.” Generally, you use “written by” for an original screenplay, i.e. one not based on an existing novel, play, short story, etc.

It’s pretty well known that the writing crew took parts of Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice and The Man With the Golden Gun novels as a starting point, in particular Twice’s Chapter 21, an obituary of Bond written by M. But the movie’s credits don’t acknowledge this. It’s “Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007” in the main titles, but there’s no mention of other Fleming source material, unlike 2006’s Casino Royale, which mentioned Fleming twice, including the Casino Royale novel.

In the “old days,” the titles said “Ian Fleming’s From Russia With Love,” or Goldfinger, Thunderball, etc. which implied it was based on a Fleming story. That was true even when chunks were thrown out, such as 1967’s You Only Live Twice or 1979’s Moonraker. This would be followed by a “Screenplay by” credit, which often implies adapting other source material.

“Screenplay by” can also be used for an original story that has been rewritten substantially such as “Screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein, Story by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade,” as in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough. Purvis and Wade did the original screenplay, with Feirstein doing the final rewrite. (Dana Stevens also did drafts in-between but didn’t get a credit.)

Something similar happened with Skyfall: Purvis and Wade wrote the early drafts, then Logan was brought in to rewrite. But Skyfall’s writing credit is relatively streamlined compared with TWINE’s.

UPDATE: We went to the Web site of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the SPECIAL RULES FOR THE WRITING AWARDS but that wasn’t much help. It reads:

1.An award shall be given for the best achievement in each of two categories:

Adapted Screenplay

Original Screenplay

2.A Reminder List of all pictures eligible in each category shall be made available along with nominations ballots to all members of the Writers Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five productions in each category.
3.The five productions in each category receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Writing awards.
4.Final voting for the Writing awards shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.

One possibility: even though Skyfall has an original story, the character of James Bond is adapted from another medium, so therefore Skyfall’s script is considered “adapted” by the academy.

UPDATE II: The writer’s branch of the academy is also known for being prickly about what’s eligible for an original screenplay award, sometimes ruling what seem like original scripts are adapted. CLICK HERE to view a story in The Wrap Web site about a 2010 example.

Berenice Marlohe or Berenice Lim Marlohe? The Oscar push again highlights the oddity of how the actress was billed one way in ads and another in the movie’s titles.

One editor or two? As we’ve noted before, Stuart Baird was listed as sole editor in Skyfall ads, but in the main titles it listed Baird and Kate Baird as editors, with Kate Baird’s name in smaller letters. Also (which we only caught on a subsequent viewing), Kate Baird is also listed as first assistant editor in the end titles.

British bookies set odds for Skyfall’s Oscar chances

The general public hasn’t even had a chance to see Skyfall yet, but British bookies are taking bets whether the 23rd James Bond film will get nominated or win Academy Awards.

According to THIS ARTICLE AT FLICKERING MYTH.COM, the following odds are in place: 1-7 that Adele’s title song gets nominated for Best Song; 5-4 that Adele’s title song wins the Oscar in that category; 3-1 that Skyfall is nominated for Best Picture; and 33-1 that Skyfall gets the Best Picture Oscar.

An excerpt:

In terms of what defines Oscar-bait, lets just remind ourselves what has been nominated before now. Inception, Christopher Nolan’s dream-like James Bond adventure, managed to nab a nomination in 2010 whilst The Departed, a foreign-film remake with guns-and-gangsters seemed an unlikely winner upon reflection. Skyfall has actors including Ralph Fiennes (nominated for a supporting role in Schindler’s List and a lead-actor role in The English Patient), Javier Bardem (winner of Best Supporting Actor in No Country for Old Men and nominated twice for Lead Actor in Biutiful and Before Night Falls), M is again played by Judi Dench (Oscar-winner for her short-role in Shakespeare in Love and nominated for her roles in Mrs Brown, Chocolat, Iris, Mrs Henderson Presents and Notes on a Scandal) and Daniel Craig has starred in a few Oscar contenders (Munich was nominated for Best Picture and The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo had an acting-nod for Rooney Mara).

The article also notes that director Sam Mendes, director of photography Roger Deakins and composer Thomas Newman have all either won or been nominated for Oscars. Not mentioned is John Logan, one of the movie’s three credited screenwriters, who has three Oscar nominations.

To date, Bond films have won two Oscars, for sound in Goldfinger and special effects in Thunderball. A 007 film hasn’t been nominated since 1981’s For Your Eyes Only got a nomination for Best Song. “But with the barrage of positive reviews for Skyfall coming in, you have to ask yourself whether this is their time,” the Flickering Myth article says. “Indeed, if it does manage to garner a nod in any of the acting, writing, directing – or the ‘untouchable’ Best Picture category – what a day that would be.”

UPDATE: Graham Rye, publisher of 007 Magazine, is picking up on this in his TWITTER FEED:

Graham Rye ‏@GrahamRye
You can’t put a value on an intelligent coherent script, which SKYFALL most certainly has! Purvis & Wade & John Logan have excelled!.

Graham Rye ‏@GrahamRye
But more importantly for me, SKYFALL is the most perfect example of 21st Century British filmmaking at its *very best*!

Graham Rye ‏@GrahamRye
SKYFALL deserves to win a handful of Oscars.

Some quick impressions of second Skyfall trailer

A bootleg copy of Skyfall’s second trailer emerged on YouTube the evening of July 26. James Bond Brasil spotted and got the word out. The hit count went from 8 to 306 by early this morning. Anyway some quick impressions:

1. More polished Bond: Daniel Craig’s days of an unsteady, inexperienced James Bond appear to be over. At 2:10 into the trailer, Bond escapes a harrowing situation and straightens his cuffs nonchalantly straightens his cuffs. It has been little moments like that that have made 007 films different than standard action movies over the decades.

2. Roger Deakins: It reinforces our reaction of the teaser trailer that Roger Deakins, the director of photography, lives up to the hype his hiring for the 23rd 007 film generated.

3. Still no Bondian music: The score of the trailer doesn’t evoke the Bond music style created by John Barry. That’s not a real concern at this point, given that trailers (at least preliminary ones) don’t have actual music from the movie.

4. If there are homages, they’re subtle: In the first minute of the trailer, there are shots of Bond engaging in a hand to hand fight on top of a train in a sequence filmed in Turkey. The combatants have to duck suddenly as the train approaches a tunnel. Long-time fans may be reminded of a sequence in 1983’s Octopussy where Bond was on top of a train in similar peril. But if this is a deliberate homage, the viewer isn’t hammered with it, unlike 2002’s Die Another Day, the 40th anniversary 007 film.

5. A young Q makes a good first impression: The casting of Ben Whishaw, 31, as the new Q got attention because previous MI6 quartermasters were older. Desmond Llewelyn was 48 when he filmed his scenes for From Russia With Love, his debut as Major Boothroyd/Q. But Whishaw seems just fine in the one scene we see in the trailer.

We decided to not embed the video (which could get taken down from YouTube for copyright reasons).

UPDATE I: Over at the message board of the Commander Bond Web site, poster “Shrublands” did some sluthing and may have discovered a very subtle homage to Dr. No in the trailer. CLICK HERE if you want to view. Warning: the sleuthing also deduces part of Skyfall’s plot. So don’t click if you want to avoid spoilers.

UPDATE II: The bootleg trailer on YouTube was yanked by 10:30 a.m. New York time.

UPDATE III: “Skyfall Fan” on Twitter advises there’s at least one other copy still out there somewhere on YouTube.

007 questions now that Skyfall has finished filming

Skyfall wrapped up production this week, with the official 007 Twitter account uploading one last clapperboard shot as the second unit finished work in Turkey. As the movie enters the editing and post-production phase, we had a few questions.

001. Will there be a gunbarrel at the start of the movie? For all of the talking points from Daniel Craig & Co. about how Skyfall will be a classic James Bond movie, “Bond with a capital B,” etc., the subject of the traditional gunbarrel logo (Bond as seen from inside a killer’s gunbarrel, the agent turning and firing, etc.) never seemed to come up. The gunbarrel was used in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace but not at the start of either movie.

The gunbarrel is a prominent part of the teaser poster but that’s not a guarantee it will be used at the very start of the film (i.e., the traditional or classic way).

002. What is Thomas Newman going to do musically with the film? Newman is the first new composer to the series in 15 years. His track record consists mostly of dramas, including some with Skyfall director Sam Mendes. The composer recently said he’s “just brainstorming right now” on the Skyfall score.

003. Was the hiring of Roger Deakins as director of photography worth all the fuss? Based on the teaser trailer, a qualified yes. There were some striking images and colors. (One of our readers disagreed, so this is not a unanimous opinion.) Still, it should be noted that You Only Live Twice was photographed by Freddie Young, one of the best British directors of photography ever, and Twice rarely shows up in lists of best 007 movies. Photography is obviously important (it’s a movie, afterall) but you still need an engrossing story.

004. Will Skyfall really have more humor than recent Bond films? The notion that Skyfall will have a lighter tone has been one of the most frequent talking points during production. Whether that’s true remains to be seen. The teaser trailer didn’t have a hint of humor. The final trailer to the Christopher Nolan-directed The Dark Knight Rises had more humor (i.e. one joke) than the Skyfall teaser trailer.

005. How much Ian Fleming content will Skyfall have? Based on some of the spoilers that have come out, noticeably more than, say, Quantum of Solace. To put it in a non-spoiler way, screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have tapped into Chapter 21 of Fleming’s 1964 You Only Live Twice novel, where the author presented background about his hero. The Skyfall principals really only talked about Fleming in detail once, at an April 29 news conference in Turkey. Until then, the subject hadn’t come up very much. It remains to be seen whether the movie incorporates more Fleming material or mood.

006. Was hiring of Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney worth all the fuss? There’s absolutely no way to know for sure at this point. The teaser trailer doesn’t provide an answer. An anxious Fiennes looks at Judi Dench’s M and there’s a silouhette of what may be Bardem’s villain. Bardem and Fiennes did some media interviews but didn’t say much. Some fans (as in this this HMSS editorial) have said it’s the best cast ever for a Bond movie. We won’t know until the fall whether that’s the case of if Skyfall becomes another example of The Missouri Breaks Syndrome.

007. So are you optimistic or pessimistic? We’re trying to avoid the extremes. Some fans argue you can’t criticize the movie until you see it. OK, but you can’t assume it’s great until you see it, either.

Skyfall teaser trailer debuts, confirms one call sheet tidbit

Skyfall’s teaser trailer was unveiled, as scheduled, on May 21 on the official James Bond Web site. Some observations:

— You can see what the fuss was about when Roger Deakins was hired as director of photography. Some of the images are stunning.

— There’s one confirmation that the contents of the call sheets and related materials that got out via eBay were genuine. At the 0:49 mark, agent Eve (Naomie Harris) is indeed shaving Bond (Daniel Craig), which was a listed scene in the call sheet materials.

— The post by “Liz” on the IMDB message board in February, was clearly off the mark.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, take a look at this version uploaded to YouTube by Sony. After the trailer, there’s an ad for the upcoming 007-themed Legends video game.

UPDATE: Some reactions around the Twitterverse. Multiple tweets to the effect that the 007.com site was very slow when the trailer went online overnight New York time. The trailer was uploaded after it was on a BBC morning show. Meanwhile on the BBC, James Bond@James Bond Live: “You’re late 007. (Skyfall trailer reveal postponed as BBC News takes their sweet time….)”

M@James Bond Dossier: “#SKYFALL trailer is completely un-Bondlike.” Bond Blog: “#SKYFALL teaser trailer awesome!” Panos Sambrakos: “I’ve the teaser trailer of #Skyfall and it rocks!” Bond Memes: “Great #Skyfall trailer. Bond doesn’t look much happier than he was in QoS, though. No sign yet of goldfinger humour.”

`All the money’s going to go on the screen’

There’s a quote attributed to Eon Productions co-founder Albert R. Broccoli to the effect that with James Bond movies, the money is all up on the screen. In Broccoli’s time at the 007 helm (1961-1996), that explained why the production team often cast unknowns for key roles, especially the female leads. Eon would save money on such roles and use it toward putting spectacle during the film.

Albert R. Broccoli, co-founder of Eon

When the modestly budgeted ($1 million) Dr. No came out 50 years ago, the crew still spent weeks in Jamaica. As budgets increased, Eon increased location shooting. “Kids that watch that watch television and watch films today, they’re very smart,” Broccoli told ABC’s Good Morning America in 1987, a quarter-century after Dr. No, when discussing The Living Daylights. “They know just where you are. They know you’re in Hollywood behind a palm tree and not in Quarzazate or not in Morocco.” (We were reminded about this in a post on the Bond and Beyond message board. You can CLICK HERE to see a 9:20 video on YouTube that has two segments from Good Morning America about The Living Daylights. The Cubby Broccoli quote starts at about the 6:20 mark.)

Sometimes, as in the case with The Living Daylights, Vienna substituted for the then-Czechoslovakia or Thailand for Vietnam (Tomorrow Is Not Enough Tomorrow Never Dies) or Spain for Cuba (Die Another Day) if going to the actual site was too difficult for political or other reasons. Still, Eon emphasized location shoots. Meanwhile, Broccoli and Eon would pass over some actors, such as Faye Dunaway in Octopussy, deeming them too expensive, in favor of spending money elsewhere.

Barbara Broccoli, Eon’s co-boss and Cubby Broccoli’s daughter, cites the “putting the money on the screen” line in places like Quantum of Solace DVD extras and the November Skyfall news conference. At the latter, a reporter asked if the Skyfall’s budget might be reduced compared with 2008’s Quantum of Solace. “Does it look like we’re cutting back?” she asked, gesturing toward director Sam Mendes and star Daniel Craig. “All the money’s going to go on the screen.”

Since then, it has emerged that the first unit isn’t going to Shanghai, with U.K. locations subbing for the Chinese business center (Ascot Racecourse subbing for Shanghai International Airport, for example), while the second unit films in China. The first unit will film in Turkey. By contrast, Quantum of Solace, with a reported $230 million budget, filmed in Chile, Mexico, Italy, Panama, Austria and the U.K.

Javier Bardem, who plays Skyfall's villain

Has the budget been cut? Michael Wilson, the other Eon co-boss, said in November that Skyfall’s budget is in the same range as Quantum. That’s despite the fact the world economy is weaker than 2008, when Quantum was filmed. Also, Quantum’s reported budget was almost as much as some Harry Potter movies without delivering the same level of return.

Still, let’s take Wilson at his word for a moment. Skyfall may be taking on higher costs that its predecessors. The 23rd James Bond film is employing an Oscar-winning director (Sam Mendes), an Oscar-nominated screenwriter (John Logan, who had two nominations when he was signed and just picked up another for Hugo), an Oscar-nominated director of photography (Roger Deakins) and a cast that includes Oscar winner Javier Bardem, whose earning power is at a peak, thanks to 2007’s No Country for Old Men, Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes and five-time Oscar nominee Albert Finney.

Perhaps “all the money’s going to go on the screen” has a new meaning under Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Examples of all the money going to the screen for Skyfall may be the “Directed by Sam Mendes” credit in the titles or a dialogue scene between Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem, or between Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney. That doesn’t mean there won’t be action. (The second unit has been filming driving sequences in China, according to the MI6 fan Web site.) But the increased salaries may mean shifting priorities, even if Skyfall’s budget isn’t one penny less than Quantum’s — and even more so if Skyfall’s budget really is lower than its predecessor.

Bond 23’s odd publicity buildup; can 007 shoot straight?

This week, there were reports that actress Naomie Harris was in talks for a part in Bond 23. One of the reports on Entertainment Weekly’s EW.com Web site said that Eon Productions confirmed such talks. However, the Eon person who made the comment wasn’t identified.

Well, that’s par for the course. The newest 007 film, to start filming late this year for release in October (in the U.K.) and November (in the U.S.) of 2012, has had an odd publicity buildup so far. Eon Productions and its studio partners, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures, have not exactly been consistent about how they spread the word. Consider:

The Peter Morgan saga: Eon puts out a press release in 2009 that Morgan, screenwriter of Frost/Nixon, would join Neal Purvis and Robert Wade in scripting Bond 23. Fans wouldn’t find out until 2010 that Morgan never even completed a treatment (essentially a detailed outline), much less a first draft of a script. Even then, that was through an interview Morgan did after he departed the Bond project. Oh, and by the way, it turned out Morgan didn’t believe in the 007 character.

OK, Morgan is a big-name screenwriter. But why publicize it so early, until you at least had some work to look at?

The Sam Mendes tease: Way back in January 2010, the Deadline Web site said Mendes had been hired as a consultant as a prelude to becoming Bond 23’s director. He couldn’t officially be designated director until MGM was ready to make a first payment for the film (and MGM was in severe financial trouble).

Later that month, Mendes was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Did he come clean? Hardly. In that interview, Mendes said it was “just speculation” that he’d direct Bond 23. That was an interesting statement, given Mendes’s own publicist told a U.K. newspaper that Mendes had indeed had talks about Bond 23 with Eon.

Oops. We, of course, know now it was hardly specualtion. Mendes’s own ex-wife, actress Kate Winslet, spilled the beans in a December 2010 interview that Mendes was directing. She was even moving to London so Mendes could be with his kids. Maybe he’s a good father, but it would seem he needs to work on his honesty in press interviews.

Hey! Don’t forget about me!: Eon apparently has decided to leave it up to some cast and crew members to make their own Bond 23 announcements. Eon and MGM said in January of this year that the film was finally on. That press release mentioned Mendes (finally), star Daniel Craig and the new screenwriting team of Purvis, Wade and John Logan.

Left out? Dame Judi Dench, who has played M in the 007 films since 1995, wasn’t mentioned. So, in late January, Dame Judi told the BBC she was indeed going to reprise the role.

Meanwhile, a big name behind the camera, director of photography Roger Deakins, told anybody who could find his Web site in a May 1 posting that he’d photograph the film. Deakins is considered one of the best directors of photography in the industry but that news was handled as an afterthought.

Clearly, Eon bosses Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have work to do and seem to like their privacy. Also, MGM’s quick trip to bankruptcy court last year complicated matters. But in the early 21st Century, big movies are marketed long before their release dates.

Warner Bros. already is using the Internet to publicize its next Batman film due out in the summer of 2012. Daniel Craig made a trip to last year’s San Diego comic book convention — which studios use to publicize upcoming films — to promote his Cowboys and Aliens movie coming out this summer. By contrast, Bond 23’s marketing and distribution of news has been much more haphazard.

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.