Grab them while they are hot: The David Fincher produced short-film series BMW Films "The Hire" has been taken offline by BMW as long as two or three years ago. They were incredibly hard to find online; at least in decent quality. Until now ...
First and foremost "The Hire" was a tremendous marketing-feat for german car-manufacturer BMW: The website asked you to register and optionally order further information on the latest BMW models, and whether you were in for more BMW info or not, it offered you access to a series of five incredible action short-films, produced by none other than David Fincher and featuring A-list directors such as John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar Wai and Alejandro González Iñárritu.
According to various press releases and articles the series was incredibly successful:
"After one year, the number of viewers who had visited BMW's Web site to download The Hire shot to over 21 million, and with three more films added in 2002, it rocketed to 100 million." (-- Business Week)
The three 2002 additions were produced by Ridley and Tony Scott and their production company RSA, rumored to have a budget of 15 million dollars, and starring James Brown, Gary Oldman, Marilyn Manson, Don Cheadle, F. Murray Abraham, and with star-directors Joe Carnahan, John Woo and Tony Scott taking the director's chair.
What I personally like about these films, is that they were not advertising -- like many of the follow up campaigns by Pirelli or Mercedes Benz. (Also check out this article from the Guardian).
Instead the BMW films were pure entertainment, very well made and fun to watch!
Go, buy yourself a BMW ... and enjoy these awesome films:
BMW FILMS "The Hire", Series 1
produced by DAVID FINCHER
AMBUSH (John Frankenheimer)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587519nBZrmSxR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo5cZhfsP2Y
CHOSEN (Ang Lee)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587518QFkbMztF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaV0c5kvYbc
THE FOLLOW (Wong Kar Wai)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v5875158cQJJwaS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBCDc7yonyE
STAR (Guy Ritchie)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587520CHCfm5Ew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i2m7W1CR3w
POWDER KEG (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587523w2SexTbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uUzK-NNTeM
BMW FILMS "The Hire", Series 2
produced by Tony Scott & Ridley Scott
HOSTAGE (John Woo)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587516XgpmdF6H
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXuc7f2ivec
TICKER (Joe Carnahan)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587521gWanKnB4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxPFkOINBdU
BEAT THE DEVIL (Tony Scott)
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587522hEAxWyM7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asNQn58iviU
And to round it up, here is some further bonus material:
THE MAKING OF "THE HIRE"
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v587517whMhQHJC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5B6PB5l47Q
DRIVING TECHNIQUES
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v5875146yqeJTE4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LRcP-vxJ0k
Disclaimer: These videos may have been posted by users with no official right to do so.
i think they're all good films. my personal pick would have to be joe carnahan's. after his short film i was hoping he would have a shot at mission impossible 3. but hey, what am i thinking? the thing i really hoped, is that david fincher would have his... too bad it didn't happened.
ReplyDeleteI agree: David Fincher doing MI3 would have been so kick ass. I am thinking, maybe Fincher is going into a different direction now, as a director, and will no longer do these kinds of films (at least if he doesn't get full creative control; which I believe might have been an issue on MI3, Tom Cruise and such). On the other hand of course I am really hoping that some day we will see a bonecrushing action flick from David Fincher. Maybe after BENJAMIN BUTTON or TORSO (if that is still on his slate) he will make another popcorn flick like PANIC ROOM -- only this time make it burst with action.
ReplyDelete"Ticker" I also enjoy a lot, especially the first shot ... that is just magic!
I think Fincher's MI3 would have killed the series (although it's dead now). Not in a bad way I think his would have been so unique that it would be hard to find another director to match Finchers take. It's the same with Nolan and the batman films, When Nolan is done WB has to let it lie for a couple of years before going at it again.
ReplyDeletei agree with you fincherfanatic. the issue with fincher and mi3, at least from what we gather from reports all over, was creative control.
ReplyDeleteand kevin, you only just mentioned my second favourite director of all times. i think nolan is doing an amazing job with the batman series, and i really think that tdk is going to kick some major a**. until fincher puts his hands around some action flick, i'm all set with nolan's work.