But while the others are the fantasy stuff of spy movie research-and-development departments, the last one is actually real, sort of, according to internal emails stolen during last fall’s hack of Sony, which were republished last week by WikiLeaks.
According to one email exchange, British actor Daniel Craig was paid $5 million from the studio’s electronics department for using a Sony phone while portraying James Bond in the 007 franchise.
In an email to colleagues including Sony Pictures execs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton, Sony marketing boss George Leon details plans to secure a new endorsement deal with the phone brand for the upcoming release, “Spectre,” and lists what Sony has paid in the past.
“Barbara (Bond producer Barbara Broccoli) has it and will be meeting with Sam (director Sam Mendes)/Daniel (Craig) shortly to discuss and to come back with their design for the phone… In the past, Sony Electronics/Mobile… has paid the following: … $5MM Daniel Craig FEE…”
Leon also floated the idea of cutting Craig out, instead paying a $4 million placement fee, and possibly spending the remaining $1 million – “or LESS!” Leon wrote – to pay another character in the film to hold the phone.
Sony probably wasn’t too excited over paying Craig to begin with, considering he thought the phone was junk.
In another email to Sony bosses, Columbia Pictures exec Andrew Gumpert said Craig and Mendes, the director, believe that Sony’s phone is inferior to other phones on the market.
Gumpert wrote: “BEYOND the $$ factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby Sam and Daniel 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”).”
Yeah, maybe you should pay someone other than James Bond up to $5 million to hold your phone in a movie.
