Beijing pirates skimming Casino Royale`s profits

29-Jan-2007 • Casino Royale

"Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell was disappointed Monday to find pirated DVDs of his Bond movie on the streets of Beijing, hours before the film's China premier and called such fakes a huge problem for the industry - reports the Washington Post.

"An awful lot of revenue is lost," due to the illicit trade, Campbell said. "From my point of view as a director, the quality of what you get on the pirated DVD is often terrible, so it's not the way I want my film to be seen."

"You work so hard to be so pristine and then you see your work on a rotten copy and it is, to put it mildly, disappointing."

Campbell, who was in Beijing with star Daniel Craig to promote the picture, told reporters he paid a street vendor about $1.30 for a copy of the film, which appeared to be Russian-made.

"Unfortunately, my name wasn't on the credits," Campbell said with a laugh, when asked if he'd shown the vendor his name on the DVD's sleeve. "I think the credits on the film were from 'The Fast and the Furious.'"

"Electronic editing and the way we process movies of course leaves (films) wide open to this ... it's a huge problem," he said.