RE: Bad Boys' 575M

Wednesday 1st October 2003

Bad Boys' 575M

Top product placement for Ferrari in new film


When the action adventure feature film ‘Bad Boys II’ hits the cinema screens all over the UK tomorrow, leading actors Martin Lawrence and Will Smith appear using a Ferrari 575 M as the ultimate cop-car.

Eight years after Bad Boys became Columbia Pictures’ highest earning and most profitable film of 1995, the team of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay reunited with Lawrence and Smith, to create Bad Boys II . This time the good guys (alias Bad Boys Lawrence and Smith) have to be badder than ever to outwit narcotics empire-builder Tapia (Jordi Molla) and rescue the beautiful Syd (Gabrielle Union), an undercover DEA agent who gets caught up in the crossfire.

Searching for locations, director Bay became intrigued by Miami’s MacArthur Causeway which links the city to the Miami Beach peninsula. Somehow Bruckheimer persuaded local authorities to close all the east-bound lanes of the Causeway and re-route regular traffic for four days of filming and the result is claimed to be one of the most intricate, high-speed, thrill-packed car chases in film history.

Lawrence and Smith have to fling their smoke grey Ferrari 575 M Maranello through scenes of utter chaos as a giant car carrier sheds its load at 70 mph, and a succession of vehicles flip, spin, roll and smash onto the highway – creating a series of mobile chicanes through which the Ferrari ultimately emerges unscathed.

Stuntman Henry Kingi and his stunt team brought in an additional 25 drivers for this four-day Causeway shoot and assembled a fleet of 60 cars, including 15 that were destined to be thrown off the carrier and wrecked as other cars smash into them and deflect them into the path of the heroes’ Ferrari.

Two purpose-built camera vehicles were manufactured for Bad Boys II . A 100 mph go-kart complete with 35mm camera platform and a fortified, customised pick-up with three external camera mountings protected by steel cages and tasked with ramming its way through cars as they toppled from the carrier!

The Ferrari 575 M Maranello used in the film was a standard model fitted with additional safety equipment, including a roll-cage and full safety harnesses.

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rob.e

Original Poster:

2,861 posts

279 months

Wednesday 1st October 2003
quotequote all
Is Will Smith MOONWALKING in this shot..?