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March 3, 2006

Update: New Bond film to suck after all

getImage.asp.jpg A few days ago I snickered about James Bond fans who are upset that someone who can actually act has been cast in Casino Royale. But if this story is true — and it's from The Sun, so that's a big if — I'm ready to join the boycott.

"Agent 007, usually seen in an Aston Martin loaded with gadgets, will drive the Ford in new movie Casino Royale... Daniel Craig will test his licence to kill in a £22,000 Mondeo, popular with salesmen — not spies."

For the non-British among us, the Ford Mondeo is known here as the Contour or the Mercury Mystique. It's like Bond ordering a Amstel Light instead of a martini. Naturally this is all driven by product placement, the trend that, as Jake noted in the earlier comments thread, has done as much as anything to ruin the series. Ford is shelling out some $25 million to put Bond in the driver's seat of a Mondeo, but it's money wasted, thanks to the law of diminishing returns. Maybe there was a time when the Bond image was strong enough to single-handedly shift the reputation of the car, but now that 007 has already sold out so much of his style to the highest bidder, each progressively more lame accessory only serves to diminish Bond's rep, doing less than nothing for the product.

Posted by Daniel Radosh

Comments

Something like the Mondeo would make sense for a Bond who is undercover as a rep for Universal Exports (not that they use that cover much any more) or is trying to keep a low profile in some other way. But that seems unlikely to be an important issue. And Ford is shelling out the cash to have their car appear bland, as the quote from the "insider" ("Moviegoers will see Bond using the car for chases and picking up girls.") makes clear.

As for Bond drinking Amstel Light, that's not too hard to picture, since he did shill for Heineken back in The World Is Not Enough. Don't think he ever ordered one in the movie, but the damage to his reputation was done.

Obviously, that should be "Ford isn't shelling out the cash to have their car appear bland."

I think it's a hoax. Too ridiculous, after all, Ford owns Astin Martin and Jaguar. Anyway, according to Wikipedia the Mondeo is being phased out in 2007. Hardly worth the expense.

Could be both: I mean, the man could drive more than one car in the course of the film; Bond tends not to take care of his vehicles.

I remember reading one of those teasing stories about Daniel Craig (who I'm really looking forward to seeing as Bond, even if he has Timothy Dalton's chin) noting that he'd never learned to drive, and was going to have to learn to drive stick in order to power the Aston Martin. So unless they gave up that idea (teaching him to drive) to put an automatic in his hands -- nah, I'd say this probably isn't fully true.

According to the story he'll drive an A-M as well. It actually seems like the fact that Ford owns A-M makes it more likely that they'd get another one of their cars into the film, but for the other reasons TG cites, I'd also say this is just a Fleet Street joke to milk the James Bland story line.

guess the real question is whether he'll be driving it NAKED! (as Drudge is touting now, without a link or any evidence)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16771998%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=exclusive--moonie-raker-name_page.html

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