A Secret-Agent Premiere for a New Range Rover

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/automobiles/a-secret-agent-premiere-for-a-new-range-rover.html

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A conventional news conference would hardly suffice for the debut of the 2014 Range Rover Sport, Land Rover executives thought, so on March 26, the night before the New York auto show opens for two days of press previews, the new S.U.V. is to be revealed in a Hollywood-caliber video.

The video’s story line seems straightforward enough: a red Range Rover Sport is packed into a shipping container, which ultimately arrives in New York for the hero to take delivery. A frenetic crosstown dash amazingly leads to the vehicle’s destination, the official unveiling in Midtown.

The video will be broadcast on the Internet, and the live press event in Manhattan is expected to include an appearance by Daniel Craig, the reigning Agent 007 of the James Bond film franchise. The choice of location was no flight of a director’s fancy, given that New York is the world’s biggest market for the Range Rover Sport, according to the company.

While Land Rover representatives remained more secretive than the Spectre crime syndicate regarding Mr. Craig’s participation, behind-the-scenes access to the filming was offered to a reporter. Over several days — and weeks ahead of the auto show’s opening — carefully selected locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn served as backdrops for the video that would lead to the Sport’s cinematic entrance.

Somewhere between standing in a flooded traffic tunnel and being strapped tightly into a helicopter, its side door wide open despite near-freezing temperatures, it became clear that in the film world, reality doesn’t interfere with a good story.

“The acting is the easy part,” said Alex Tufel, who had been hired as a body double for the production. As he stood off-camera in frigid temperatures at the Red Hook Container Terminal in Brooklyn, his crisply pressed Tom Ford suit seemed perfectly matched for a certain martini-sipping British agent, even if the sharp look was at odds with the shabby industrial setting.

“The shoes alone cost $1,400,” he said, adding that he’d practiced the “militarylike” gait of his character. An unscripted demonstration on a Brooklyn pier proved the effectiveness of his studies.

The new Range Rover Sport is lighter than the model it replaces by some 800 pounds, the reduction coming in large part from a new aluminum unibody structure. There is a choice of a 340-horsepower supercharged V-6 engine or an optional 510-horsepower supercharged V-8. Both power plants come with 4-wheel-drive and an 8-speed automatic transmission.

The 2014 Range Rover Sport goes on sale this year at a starting price of about $63,000.