Daniel Craig was against Sony and Samsung phones in Spectre because "James Bond only uses the best"

The amount of money discussed for Android product placements in the new James Bond movie Spectre was staggering. Daniel Craig, who stars as the suave and debonair British spy, was offered $5 million to be seen with the Sony Xperia Z4 in the movie. Sony offered $18 million for marketing and promotion for the film, a figure trumped by a $50 million bid by Samsung. In addition, Samsung said it would pay $5 million if Bond was seen in the movie using a Samsung smartphone.

But leaked emails from producer Barbara Broccoli revealed that neither Craig, nor Spectre director Sam Mendes, were in favor of the multi-million dollar product placement and promotion deals because "James Bond only uses the 'best,' and in their minds, the Sony phone is not the 'best.'" That comment came in an email to Broccoli from Andrew Gumpert, President of Worldwide Business Affairs and Operations for Columbia Pictures. The conversation was one of those leaked when Sony's emails was hacked The leaked email doesn't say which phone the actor and the director would consider worthy of use by James Bond. Word of the email first became public last April. Now that the film is about to be released in the U.S., it has become topical again.


Last December, when emails from Sony first started to leak, there was talk that Craig and Mendes would have a hand in designing the Xperia Z4. There is no indication that this ever took place. Also discussed in the correspondence was an idea to do a promotion for the phone without Daniel Craig. In this scenario, $4 million would have gone to producer Barbara Broccoli as a placement fee. The other $1 million would have been used to have the actor who plays "Q" take part in the promotion.

In September, Sony released a commercial for the Sony Xperia Z5 showing Miss Moneypenny picking up the phone for James Bond in a movie-quality ad. Daniel Craig did not appear in the commercial and Sam Mendes had nothing to do with it. We wonder how Craig feels about the ad, which implies that his character uses an Xperia Z5.

source: BusinessInsider via AppleInsider