As a huge fan of the James Bond series, I wasn't too surprised to hear that other Bond fans were very upset at the news that James Bond would be drinking Heineken in the new film Skyfall, set to open in November.  This blatant product placement was an outrage to die-hard Bond fans despite the fact that Daniel Craig's last two Bond films were filled with other types of product placement.  Maybe they just want their Bond to stick to drinking martinis (even though he drank beer in Quantum of Solace).

Because of this outrage, Bond himself spoke up about the sponsorship in an interview with Moviefone.

"We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie. The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn’t do it. It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is," Craig said. "This movie costs a lot of money to make, it costs as nearly as much again if not more to promote, so we go where we can. The great thing is that Bond is a drinker, he always has been, it’s part of who he is, rightly or wrongly, you can make your own judgement about it, having a beer is no bad thing, in the movie it just happens to be Heineken."

Heineken is reportedly paying $45 million for their product placement which would certainly be a good reason for Bond to drink the popular Dutch beer.  And don't expect it to be the only instance of product placement in the film.  Still photos posted on the official James Bond Facebook page show Judi Dench's "M" sitting in front of a Sony Vaio laptop.

As a longtime James Bond fan, I really don't see the big deal about this.  Product placement is in just about every film these days and should be expected.  Not to mention that these so-called "die hard" fans probably haven't read the original Ian Fleming novels in which Bond typically drinks something other than a martini.  In fact, in one of the James Bond short stories, Fleming specifically mentions Bond drinking a Miller High Life beer.

So let's forget this nonsense and get ready for what is expected to be an incredible Bond movie.  I mean...with Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes, how can you go wrong?

Let's just hope that they don't serve Bond's beer shaken.  It might make a mess.

Follow me on Twitter:  @WIBC_AlexBrown

(photo courtesy of the official James Bond Facebook page)