The BMW Clive Owen connection

Long before Clive Owen became the big Hollywood star of today, and long before Jason Statham became The Transporter, there was The Hire. Ask any car nut who "The Driver" was, and they will be able to tell you his name. This is how Clive Owen's fame began. The Hire was a series of short films from BMW Films that were produced by Hollywood heavy weights like David Fincher, Ridley and Tony Scott. Other prominent directors that made up the dream team included John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Woo and Joe Carnahan. 

This effort by BMW was groundbreaking and The Hire film series ignored conventions and created the phenomenon known as online films. The eight short films by critically acclaimed Hollywood directors effectively revolutionized the world of interactive entertainment, while showcasing the absolute limits of automotive high-performance exclusive to BMW. Released exclusively on the internet... way back in 2001, the short films were such a huge success back then (over a 100 million views in 2005!) that BMW Films even released a DVD with all the films. And don't for one second think it was just heavy weight producers and directors that were involved in the project. Some of the most well known artists were also involved; James Brown, Gary Oldman, Madonna, Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke, and Adriana Lima are some of the names that played parts in the films.

The good news is you can watch all the films right here! Check them out below: