BMW seals 17m James Bond deal

BMW has fought off strong com-petition from Jaguar and Aston Martin to provide secret agent James Bond with the latest BMW 7 series car for his next film, in a deal worth over 17m.

Gone is the sports car – now James Bond will drive a car more associated with would-be captains of industry than hard-driving, fast-living secret agents. The film, Tomorrow Never Dies, is scheduled for release in December.

The German car maker is keeping details of the deal under wraps but it is understood to be similar to the Z3 sports car contract signed at the time of the last film, Goldeneye. That launched the Z3 globally and was worth 17m in a global mutual marketing agreement.

The latest version of the saloon, the BMW 728i, was launched in the UK in February last year and sells for between 37,000 and 52,000.

One movie product placement source says: “BMW is virtually the only luxury car maker which can put together this sort of deal properly.”

A spokeswoman for production company Eon, which has made all 18 of the Bond films, says: “We have added a few optional extras.”