Title: The Hire: Star
Genre: Action, Short, Comedy
Year: Jun, 2001
Director: Guy Ritchie
Producers: Robyn Boardman and Aristides McGarry
Writer by: Guy Ritchie and Joe Sweet
Music: "Song 2" performed by Blur and "The Ride of the Valkyries" written by Richard Wagner
Starring: Madonna (The Star), Clive Owen (The Driver), Michael Beattie (Glen), Toru Tanaka Jr. (bodyguard), Woon Young Park (bodyguard)...
Length: 7'

In June, 2001 Madonna surprised us with Star, a new collaboration with her husband, Guy Ritchie. This time it is a short film, an advertisement made for the famous car company BMW. Madonna and Guy had received many offers to do a TV commercial, and they didn't accepted them, but now it was different. The short films were only to be shown in the internet (in the website www.bmwfilms.com), and they has all the artistic control of the filming. When they also knew the other people involved in the project, they accepted. They only had to do two things: use a BMW car and the driver, Clive Owen. All the rest was decided by Guy and Madonna.
Star is the fourth of a series of 5 short films called The Hire. The Ritchie couple got 1'4 million pounds for the ad, in which Madonna doesn't appear in the credits. Madonna used a stunt for the scenes inside the car in which moves violently. The five stories have in common the driver: Clive Owen, who always uses a different BMW model. The one used in Star was a BMW M5 Sedan. The filming took place in Pittsburgh (USA) in February 2001, a few days later of the filming of the video for What It Feels For A Girl (the first Madonna - Guy collaboration, also involving cars). The executive producer of all the series is David Fincher (who has directed Madonna in her videos: Express Yourself, Oh Father, Vogue and Bad Girl).
Guy won the best director award for an internet video in the 2001 Video Premiere Awards.
Star can be easily found in the internet, and BMW released a promotional DVD with the complete collection of the five short films, a great DVD for every Madonna collector.

Madonna: although she is not a successful actress, Madonna has made many films. She has made more than 10 movies playing the main role. As her best performances we can say: Desperately Seeking Susan, and Evita, which made her won a Golden Globe. Although she has been criticised many times for her acting skills, she has never stopped trying to reach the top in this area. With Star, this is the first time Madonna appears in a short film.

Clive Owen: British actor, who started his career in some TV series of the British BBC channel. He became famous with the film Croupier on 2000. Other films in which he has worked are: The Bourne Identity, Gosford Park, Bent, The Rich Man's Wife, Century, The Return of the Native, etc... and of course, The Hire series made for BMW, of which he is the main character.

The Hire is a series of five short spots for BMW, where the cars of the famous company appear in all of them. The driver of the BMW is always the same: Clive Owen. The other four ads are:

Ambush (John Frankenheimer). On a dark freeway, a van swerves close to the driver and the door slides open. From inside, masked gunmen threaten to fire unless the driver stops and surrenders his passenger, a seemingly harmless man they accuse of smuggling diamonds. It's a simple choice: Do or die. Legendary director John Frankenheimer and star Clive Owen combine talents to create a dramatic chase with some unexpected twists.

Chosen (Ang Lee). The driver meets a ship carrying an eight-year-old Tibetan boy at a dark, deserted New York shipyard. But he's not the only one waiting. Ang Lee, director of the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and star Clive Owen create a thrilling, yet beautiful, tale filled with mystery...

The Follow (Wong Kar-Wai). The cunning and tactics of trailing another car quickly evolve into a mystery rife with deceit, as The Driver is hired to follow a woman accused of cheating on her famous husband. Discover acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai's ability to play heart against mind in this drama of mistrust.


Powder Keg (Alejandro González Iñárritu) Soldiers patrol fields and rural villages. Their mission: Find a photojournalist who has snapped a picture certain to unite the world against their leader. Alejandro González Iñárritu directs Clive Owen as the photographer's driver and sole hope of getting him and his film beyond the strongly guarded border.

Madonna has a driving license from her high school years. Her first car was a red Mustang, she owned it in 1974, when she was 16, was a present from her father. Since then, Madonna has had many vehicles: a Mercedes 560SL, limousines, ... One of her most famous cars has been a 57' Thunderbird, her wedding present from Sean Penn, the car appearing in the True Blue video. We can see Madonna driving a car many times, lately with Guy in UK.

Madonna plays the role of a Rock Star. She is arrogant, modern, selfish, and shouts too much. But she is the Star, and everyone has to obey her. The costume design has been made by Arianne Phillips, who had previously designed outfits for the What It Feels Like For A Girl video, the Drowned World Tour 2001 and Up For Grabs. The make-up and hairdresser were by Lucia Pieroni y Luigi Murenu.

He grew up in Fulham (Gales). When he was 6 years old, his mother, Amber, got married again with baron Sir Michael Leighton. His life changed: he went to live in a XVII century palace. His dyslexia made him very hard to keep studying, so at fifteen, he left everything, moved to London, and worked as a waiter, as a message deliverer,… Finally, at 25 decided that he wanted to be a film director: his father made a couple of calls and Guy directed his first film in 1998: Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, a film that was a great success in the UK. Snatch was his second movie, and it was an international success. He was just married to Madonna. And from that moment he would direct the Madonna video for What It Feels Like For A Girl, the Star ad for the BMW company, and Swept Away, his last film up to date, and his first movie flop.