SiberianLlama

Hi, I love the short BMW film series The Hire and was wondering if there were any plans on a third season of films? I know that Clive Owen is pretty popular in Hollywood now, but these short films are just amazing and I would love to see more of them.

Is there any information out there about new films? Thanks!

DonnachaOne

I haven't noticed any news, but "Beat The Devil" director Tony Scott has a new short up on Amazon.com's daily Amazon theater. Not The Hire, but might be interesting.

devilshalo

Not sure if there will be a 3rd series of Hire films. David Fincher's Propaganda Films put together the first set and showcased the handling of different types of BMWs. Scott Free (Tony and Ridley Scott's production company) did the second batch and showcased the Z4 Roadster. I don't think BMW is coming out with any new models to showcase.

Fincher Fan

BMW must have screwed up big time to not have Fincher do a 'Hire' film of his own. The fact that Scott Free handled the second series seems to confirm that fact.

devilshalo

Trevor

Nice. I could be misremembering, but I think The Hire was instrumental in getting me hooked on collecting movies and into DVDs.

mrhan

They should release anamorphic versions of the originals on BD. The shorts on the original DVD were better than the follow up dvd. I thought Ambush by John Frankenheimer was the best of the series followed by the Madonna short.

Solid Snake

The Frankenheimer one was pretty good.

I loved Hostage though. John Woo. I'm a sucker for him when he's allowed to go Woo.

I loved that series WAY too much.

Did think the Tony Scott and Ang Lee ones were the weakest of the bunch from what I remember.

TheBang

I look forward to visiting my local BMW dealership to get my free DVD copy.

mrhan

I had several friends who owned BMWs when the original DVDs came out. I got copies from them. Good thing a few have some new ones. I'm sure I can at least score a couple for free.

devilshalo

I hated the Wong Kar Wai one.

Mabuse

It's brilliant. The best of the bunch.

dex14

Well this is exciting news.

Mabuse

I remember that at the time the original DVD came out I happened to work right across the street from a BMW dealership. I read about this new idea of marketing great commercials on DVD (I probably read it right here on DVDTalk) and I literally stood up, walked across the street, and 2 minutes later had it in my hands. I was a huge fan of Ronin, and there was no doubt that this effort was inspired by Frankenheimer's achievement on that film.

I also seem to recall that the first pressing was quickly replaced by a second pressing that dropped one of the films, I think the WKW one, over some rights issue. Then later there was a third pressing that re-included the film after the issue had been ironed out.

mrhan

Yeah, forgot about Hostage. I popped in the DVD to check it out. Really good short. The Ang Lee one was boring.

After watching the DVD; this definitely needs an anamorphic re-issue....looks really shitty.

Jay G.

My understanding is that Forest Whitaker took his roll in the Wong Kar-wai short uncredited, with the understanding that it'd be released online-only. When BMW released the films on DVD, Forest Whitaker protested, and BMW removed the short from the DVD until they worked something out.

As was mentioned higher up, a Blu-ray release would be even better.


So, is this new "season" only one short? Or is this short just the first in a new season?


Some other old DVDTalk threads I found on this series:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk/52...-them-dvd.html
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-talk-ar...ire-short.html

mrhan

Duh. That was my post. I was just following that up now that I have seen how terrible it is. I even posted in one of those old threads you linked to that they should release anamorphic versions back in 2008.

Funny how Trevor made the same comment about collecting in the old thread.

Trevor

I really do have a crappy memory. But given that thread was eight and a half years ago, it sort of confirms my memory and my "Genesis" here at dvdtalk. So there you have it, blame BMW whenever I upset any of you.

Match

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mrhan

Man on Fire?

I never saw these before...


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Jay G.

The Escape is now up on their site:
http://bmwfilms.com/film

Also on Youtube:

Solid Snake

Wow. Glad to have The Driver back. Feels as fresh as when I saw the original shorts all those years ago.

mrhan

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That was good. I hope they make more.