Sony is looking to make a smash-it out of the Xperia Z4, but
the upcoming handset has already been bad-mouthed before its global
release, by none other than secret agent James Bond.
Well, when we say James Bond we mean actor Daniel Craig. It was revealed from corporate emails leaked during the Sony Pictures hack
last year that the Xperia Z4 was going to feature in the latest 007
film, Spectre. However, that product placement deal might now be on the
ropes.
Wikileaks republished the leaked files last week, and a new
email has been dug up sent by Columbia Pictures’ Andrew Gumpert,
revealing that Craig and the film’s director Sam Mendes aren’t fans of
the Sony Xperia Z4.
“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'),” reads themessage.
In
a bid to win Craig over, a separate email sent by George Leon says that
Sony was willing to pay the star $5 million (£3.3m) to use the handset
in the movie. A further $18 million (£12m) will be used on advertising
and $5 million earmarked for production.
But Sony is also facing
competition from Samsung, which has also reportedly offered a fixed
placement fee of $5 million and a total advertising spend of $50 million
(£33m).
These emails were sent a while back before production on
Spectre kicked off, so the studio has probably decided now which tech it
will go with. Will it be the Sony Xperia Z4 or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge? We’ll have to wait until Spectre comes out on November 6 to find out.
There’s still no word on the Xperia Z4’s release outside of Japan. However, the email refers to May and November as release dates for Sony handsets.
