14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like we might not see another Xperia Z series smartphone being cast in a James Bond movie, at least while Daniel Craig maintains the main role.
According to leaked emails dating to October 2014, Daniel Craig resisted the use of an Xperia Z5 smartphone in the next James Bond movie.
BusinessInsider reports that the first email coming from Barbara Broccoli, daughter of James Bond movie series creator Albert Broccoli wished that Sony increases its $18 million marketing budget for the Spectre with bigger payments to the cast and crew for using its smartphones.
Sony offered $5 million to Spectre star Daniel Craig to put the Xperia Z5 in the movie, but both director Sam Mendes and James Bond himself resisted the proposal saying that the film character only uses the “best” smartphones on the market.
“BEYOND the $$ factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby Sam and Daniel don’t like the Sony phone for the film (the thinking, subjectively/objectively is that James Bond only uses the 'best,' and in their minds, the Sony phone is not the 'best'),” wrote Andrew Gumpert, president of Worldwide Business Affairs and Operations for Columbia Pictures.
Miss Moneypenny has taken James Bond's job to show the Xperia Z5
Samsung was willing to offer the same amount of money to Daniel Craig in order to promote one of its phablets in the next James Bond movie.
However, the South Korean company would have bolstered the marketing budget to promote the Spectre to no less than $50 million, which is about $32 million more than what Sony offered in the first place.
Since both the director of the movie and the main star resisted the offers, Sony has decided to implicate Ben Whishaw, the actor playing “Q,” in the Sony Xperia Z5 placement in the Spectre movie, as well as Barbara Broccoli.
The Japanese company would have paid $4 million for a placement fee directly to Barbara while Ben Whishaw would have taken $1 million.
Well, it turned out that Sony has cut a deal with actress Naomie Harris, who plays the Moneypenny character, and we already have an advert showing the Xperia Z5 handled by the star.
It remains to be seen what smartphone Daniel Craig will be using in the next James Bond movie, if the actor will decide to use any. Any bets?
