Internal Sony communications indicated that “Spectre” star Daniel Craig and the movie’s director Sam Mendes were both opposed to multimillion dollar product placements for Sony or Samsung Android phones because it could tarnish the suave image of James Bond.
“BEYOND the [dollar] factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby Sam [Mendes] and Daniel [Craig] 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.
Product placement in films these days is rampant and nothing new but when you see a film’s Director and star standing up for their creative vision that’s worth making a deal about. Especially when they’re talking about US$18m from Sony and over US$50m from Samsung.
This has all been made public thanks again to the Sony email hack last year, but is of course being made a big deal of now as Spectre releases this coming Thursday.
Source: Daniel Craig resisted Android phone placement in “Spectre” because “James Bond only uses the best”