The Orange ‘film funding board’ advert series is to be retired and a new campaign of cinema spot adverts is to run in its place, reports UK marketing news publication Marketing.

Orange’s film adverts, featuring celebrities conflicting with a spoof panel of Orange film executives determined to shift the script to mobile phone product placement, have run before feature films in the UK since 2003. Over the past seven years they have gone from the original set-up, where celebrities pitch their ideas to have them ripped apart by Brennan Brown’s “Mr Dresden” character, to high budget affairs such as the advert featuring Steven Seagal – where Dresden is chased across a golf course and into a helicopter.

Celebrities and Hollywood stars who have featured in the “Gold spot” (the 65-second advertisement slot immediately before a start of the film) include Signourney Weaver, Danny Glover, Emilio Estevez, Verne Troyer, Michael Madsen, Dennis Hopper and nearly a dozen others.

Its place in the ‘Gold Spot’ will be taken by a new campaign which will feature a “Don’t Let a Mobile ruin your Movie” tag-line and will spoof imitation trailers for feature films.

These will be similarly star-studded affairs as the previous campaign; the first advert will star Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper in a fake trailer for the upcoming A-Team remake movie, as part of a tie-up with 20th Century Fox.

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