Since the days when John Wayne got off his horse for the last time, cars have played an important part in films from spectacular stunts to wild chases with an entire industry catering to these “co-stars.”
Every manufacturer knows that if it can product-place a car model in a box-office hit, it is sure to boost sales.
Johannes Schultz, who has for years been responsible for production placement at BMW, said: “This is really big business,” but declined to reveal any figures.
Schultz, who was responsible for placing the BMW Z4 and Z8 in the James Bond movies, said: “For carmakers the presence in a film is the perfect addition to the classic advertisement
“You can reach an entirely different public and in the best case reveal a car before the sales start in the company of famous stars. The more popular a film and the more famous the main actor is, the bigger the impact.”
FAST AND FURIOUS
The James Bond movies, portraying the adventures of a British secret agent since the 1960s, have always been an important stage for high-powered cars. Since the third James Bond film “Goldfinger,” the Aston Martin DB5 has traditionally been the Bond car. But depending on the production company and the contract situation, he has also switched to a Toyota 2000 GT, a Lotus or a BMW.
But James Bond is not the only action hero driving a famous car; Hawaiian private detective Thomas Magnum drove a Ferrari 308
GTS while Steve McQueen raced a 1968 Ford Mustang through the streets of San Francisco in the role of Lieutenant Frank Bullitt.
Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in “The Fast and the Furious” movies stuck to US muscle cars and tuned-up Japanese sports cars while Sonny Crockett of “Miami Vice” drove a Ferrari Testarossa.
HERBIE
Sometimes the hero chooses to divert from the sports car to something quite different. James Bond has been seen escaping in a Citroen 2CV or a Ford Ka while the snob Johnny English played by Rowan Atkinson likes to take a seat in a Rolls-Royce.
The Volkswagen Beetle has always taken on a special role in the movies. In the movie “Herbie” of 1968 it outpaced all the other cars with the number 53. The main actors in the film, Dean Jones and Michele Lee, have almost been forgotten while the film car again made it on stage when VW unveiled the New Beetle in Shanghai recently.
For BMW's Schultz, however, the best advertising remains the German cop show “Derrick.” The series ran for 25 years in 70 languages and in more than 100 countries with Inspector Derrick always driving a BMW.
However, before the advertising has any effect, carmakers often have to invest a small fortune and rebuild the cars destined for the film. In the Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” a BMW 7-Series had to be steered from the rear seat, and Rolls-Royce rebuilt two vehicles for Johnny English's car .
“What you saw on the screen could also be done by the cars on the road.”
Nobody knows better than George Barris how big the studios' demands can be. He's the Hollywood legend who built the first Batmobile and converted a Pontiac Trans Am into K.I.T.T for the TV series “Knight Rider.”
“We had the good ideas and the ability to implement them,” Barris says.
Today, he laments that many a mechanic, when faced with a difficult task, prefers to generate the car on a computer, rather than built it for real. - Sapa-dpa