What's the news?
Audi has form in the whole supplying cars for films gig. Watch most of the recent Marvel movies and you'll see lots of Audi models running around on screen, occasionally exploding when Captain America does something awesome. It also, most famously, created a bespoke, futuristic concept, the RSQ quattro, for the 2004 Will Smith action sci-fi thriller, I, Robot.
Well, Audi and Will are teaming up again, but perhaps not quite in the way you were expecting. Audi has designed a new RSQ, this time the RSQ e-tron, but it's for an animated movie, featuring the voice talent of Will Smith (as well as Spider-Man star Tom Holland, and fellow Marvel alumnus Karen Gillan). It's called Spies In Disguise, and it follows the adventures of super-spy Lance Sterling (that's Smith) who solves crimes and does his spy stuff, aided by the gadgets designed by scientist Walter Beckett (Holland).
One of those is the RSQ e-tron, which looks like a cross between an R8, a space ship, and the cartoon dream car you could never quite manage to draw when you were a kid. "Audi takes a digital, forward-looking approach to the design process, both in developing fictional content and in the production modeling studio," commented Frank Rimili, head of Exterior Design Studio 3 at AUDI AG. "At Audi Design, we combine state-of-the-art digital visualisation techniques with handmade precision. These processes enable us to implement futuristic design ideas with the same precision in the development of a fictional virtual concept vehicle such as the RSQ e-tron."
It's not all cartoon fun and games, though. Audi has designed the RSQ e-tron to begin building awareness for e-tron full-electric mobility as part of the company's roll-out of battery-powered and hybrid cars "An international espionage story with future technologies that can save the world is the perfect match for the Audi brand" says Giovanni Perosino, Vice President of Marketing Communication at Audi AG. "Similar to our cars, fun, innovation and performance are key elements of the storyline."
"Audi and Fox have been great collaborators over the years and we're thrilled to evolve our relationship, bringing Audi into the world of animation for the first time. This project was the perfect opportunity to highlight Audi's e-tron technology and give our intrepid spy, Lance Sterling, his own signature spy mobile", said Erin Williams, Vice President, Marketing Partnerships for Twentieth Century Fox Film.
Now we just have to wait till September 2019 to see the finished film.