[Faisal Hashmi]

I just happened to watch the new Elijah Wood thriller 'Grand Piano' and right from the beginning, BlackBerry placement is everywhere. The main character of the film uses a BlackBerry Bold and in the very next scene receives a gift from his wife which says 'Welcome to the 21st Century ' - and it's a brand new BlackBerry PlayBook!

Minor spoilers below for more information about the placement.

In a later scene about 30 minutes in, Elijah Wood (a pianist) is stuck in a situation where a sniper is aimed at him and will shoot him if he misses a single note at a concert. After a lot of shots of the Bold in earlier scenes where he's receiving messages from the sniper, we see Wood sneakily place his Bold behind his cover sheet music book and sneakily type a distress message to his friend with one hand on the hidden phone WHILE playing the piano with the other and succeeds without the sniper noticing! Quite an ad for the need of a physical keyboard actually!

You'd think that's the end of the PlayBook placement, but the film goes so far as to make it a central plot point. In a later scene, Elijah Wood is in his dressing room and only has minutes to find sheet music for an extremely hard song that he misplaced by mistake. And that's when he remembers the gift his wife gave him, fires up his new PlayBook and Googles the composition (lots of shots of the PlayBook in action), and listens to it and prepares a sheet by ear. PlayBook saved his ***!

It was surprising to see this and interesting because this is a 2014 release (hits US cinemas this weekend and already on VOD) so unless the film was shot a couple of years ago, it's weird to see BlackBerry have paid sponsorship for a product that's no longer being made.

What do you guys think?

Posted via CB10

[badiyee]

LOL now I just want to watch this movie and see if its exactly as you say. LOL

By no means, but I'm laughing so hard here (because you talk about BlackBerry, but the movie should be about the pianist)

[spikesolie]

I don't think they'd pay for sponsorship of a 3 year product on an averagely popular show when they refuse to support that same product or market the new products they now support

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

This indie movie was shot at the end of 2012 in Spain. It didn't test well with audiences (the plot is pretty ludicrous and a rehash of several similar movies, such as Phone Booth), which is why it was released to VOD before it even had its (very limited) US theater release.

Anyway, the timeline explains why the BB products you see in it are older models.

[igor10000]

heading to youtube to see trailer now

[Brutal Efficiency]

Sweeeeet

I love the PlayBook more than you guys!!

Quality Poultry - Channel PIN: C004B64D1

[igor10000]

yup, it�s there. both the bold and the playbook can be seen in the trailer

[Gray]

Just notice this trailer today and thought I'd be the first one to post the trailer. My Crackberry skills are not strong..