Ron Perlman has taken part in an award-winning commercial
for Stella Artois beer. This commercial, which is called "Devil's
Island," won a Gold Award at the British Advertising Awards.
Here is a little more information
on this advertisement.
The new ad, "Devil's Island," is directed by Jonathan
Glazer, whose 1997 "Last Orders" commercial for Stella made
his name. Since he shot the ad, in which a dying man's son is unable
to resist drinking the glass of Stella he has gone to great pains
to acquire for his father, Glazer has fulfilled his long-held ambition
to make a feature film (the acclaimed gangster movie "Sexy Beast")
and is now preparing to make his second, "Birth," a big-budget
Hollywood drama starring Nicole Kidman and Lauren Bacall.
"Devil's Island" is extravagant even by Stella's
standards. Industry estimates put the cost of the film at more than
£750,000, thanks to a shoot in Argentina, crowd scenes that required
more than 850 extras, and the hiring of an 80-year-old ship which
had to be made seaworthy before it could be used for filming.
The hero is played by an unknown Italian stage actor called
Antonio Rampino, whom Glazer discovered in Rome after an exhaustive
trawl of talent in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. The shoot
was held up for four weeks while he found his man, and when filming
eventually began, it lasted six days, far longer than a normal ad
shoot, and required the closure of four blocks of downtown Buenos
Aires to shoot the crowd scenes.
"Devil's Island," which will hit screens next month,
tells the story of Didier, a prisoner bound for the notorious French
penal colony. On the ship he witnesses one of his fellow inmates attacking
a guard with a metal soup ladle and knocking him unconscious. As the
prisoner is thrown into the ship's cooler for a spell of solitary
confinement, one of the soldiers becomes distracted and drops a bottle
of Stella.
The bottle rolls to the other end of the deck, where Didier,
unable to believe his luck, stashes it away in a rolled-up blanket
and waits for a quiet moment to enjoy his discovery. Unfortunately,
the prisoners never have a moment alone, and every time he tries to
sneak the bottle out he is eyed suspiciously by the others. Then,
in a moment of inspiration, he grabs the cook's metal ladle and whacks
the guard with an apologetic shrug. He is then dragged over to the
hold, clinging tightly to his blanket with a private smile of anticipation
on his face, as the words "reassuringly expensive" appear on screen.
(Note: Ron played the prisoner
who attacked the guard with a metal soup ladle.)
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British Television Advertising
Awards
Gold award
Advertiser: Interbrew UK
Product: Stella Artois
Title : Devil's Island
Advertising agency: Lowe
Production company: Academy
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Writer: Vince Squibb
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My thanks to Helen Chavez for passing on the above
information.
