Until last week I had completely forgotten about BMW Films’ THE HIRE, a series of eight short films released in 2001-2002 which starred Clive Owen as The Driver, a mysterious and bad-ass character who drove various people from place to place. Directed by the likes of John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar Wai, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Woo, Joe Carnahan and Tony Scott, THE HIRE was unlike anything else out there at the time and fifteen years later, BMW has resurrected the series with Neill Blomkamp's THE ESCAPE. Check out a brief teaser for the upcoming short which also stars Dakota Fanning, Jon Bernthal and Vera Farmiga.
Neill Blomkamp was in film school back when the original episodes were being released and told THR that he found them to be really groundbreaking. "They seemed like the perfect halfway point between commercials and features. I actually emailed the production company as a 20-year-old and was like, ‘I’d really like to make one of these.’ They wrote back, ‘Never contact us again.' And here I am [laughs]."
THE ESCAPE will debut on BMWFilms.com on October 23rd at 6:00 p.m. EST.