The BA advert from 1989....
...and the Silverjet remake, 2007

plus The making of the Silverjet film

In a cheeky take-off of an iconic British Airways advert from 1989, start-up airline Silverjet has reshot the film in the same place and with the same director.

Hugh Hudson, who directed Chariots of Fire in 1981, went on to shoot the BA advert eight years later. In it, 150 swimmers in red swimsuits are seen, followed by hundreds of people dressed in blue walking through Los Angeles and hundreds more in white in a field.

The huge crowd of extras come together to form a face in the desert, with music overriding the message: "The World's favourtie airline".

Now Silverjet has spent nearly £100,000 hiring the same ad agency, Saatchi, together with Hudson to reform after 18 years to film a remake. Hudson said the idea appealed to him as a "David v Goliath" project. The crew spent seven weeks remaking the film in LA and at Lake Powell, bordering Arizona and Utah.

The plot and buildup are identical, but with a single red suited swimmer and lone suit in LA. Instead of hundreds and thousands of extras, only four people form the face, with a handful of other actors posing as passengers and crew.

Silverjet chief executive Lawrence Hunt said: "We wanted something that would stretch our budget, that would be recognisable rather than completely new.

"I think it is the most iconic airline advert ever - I think BA used to produce fantastic adverts. But I also wanted to show us as something more personal, more different to BA and the traditional carriers. I think this gets the message across of being a private airline service, rather than one for the masses."

The ad first shows at 1.55pm this Saturday during the England/Australia Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals and will then run globally.

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