Beijing pirates skim Bond's 007 profits

Date: 30/01/2007

Casino Royale director Martin Campbell was disappointed to find pirated DVDs of his 007 Bond movie on the streets of Beijing, hours before the film's China premiere.

He called such fakes a huge problem for the industry.

"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."

Campbell, who was in Beijing with star Daniel Craig to promote the picture, told reporters he paid a street vendor about 66 pence 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.

The movie, which premiered in the capital yesterday, is due to be shown on 1,000 screens throughout China.