Some of our older readers will probably remember that there was a time when the Internet wasn't yet blessed with YouTube, Vimeo or other similar video streaming websites.
About 15 years ago, BMW was the promoter of a rather special series of short films, which were ahead of their time in so many ways that it isn't even funny. Called “The Hire,” all eight online films starred Clive Owen as a bona fide “bad guy chauffeur,” who drove various BMW models and got himself in all sorts of mildly amusing but also dangerous situations.
Among Owen's A-list co-stars we can find Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Gary Oldman and even Madonna or James Brown. Each of the short movies was directed by a Hollywood heavy-hitter, like Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, John Woo, Wong Kar-wai or the late John Frankenheimer and Tony Scott. Overall, there was nothing like “The Hire,” before or after it, in the world of automotive branded content.
We have some great news for BMW and “The Hire” fans because the Bavarian carmaker has decided to reiterate the series, bringing back Clive Owen to reprise his role as “The Driver.”
It's not yet known if it will be another series or just a one-off short film, but District 9's Neill Blonkamp is set to direct a short titled “ The Escape.” Along with Owen, we will get to see Dakota Fanning, Vera Farmiga, and Jon Bernthal in what will probably be a short but intense action flick revolving around the upcoming 2017 BMW 5 Series G30.
The 11-minute movie is set to premier online, just like its predecessors, on October 23 at 6 PM ET, on BMWFilms.com. The footage was shot a couple of months ago, and the visual effects and editing have just been wrapped. Quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Neill Blonkamp let it slip that the budget “was pretty close to major feature-film territory,” if we look at it on a cost-per-minute basis.
You can check out a small teaser, which doesn't spoil much at all, down bellow. We don't know about you, but we can't wait for the full feature and hope that "The Escape" is just the beginning.
Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project. Full profile
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