"Oldman was standing there in this fucking wild outfit of tights, pumps and make-up, plus this terrible orange rug," laughs Tony Scott on Beat the Devil, his short for BMW Films. "He was Nosferatu-in-drag meets Keith Richards."

So begins a new triumvirate of filmettes from BMW's The Hire series, begun in 2001 by five of Hollywood's most noted directors. Last year, over 14 million viewers visited BMW's website for the first five films as directed by Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu and the late John Frankenheimer.

The Hire returns with three new shorts exec produced by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott and Jules Daly. Produced by RSA USA through Fallon Worldwide, the latest installment features filmmakers John Woo, Joe Carnahan and Tony Scott.

Clive Owen is the same suave yet laconic driver-for-hire in three films entitled Hostage, Ticker and Beat the Devil. Additional performances include those by thesp Gary Oldman, plus James Brown and Don Cheadle. Special cameos involve Marilyn Manson, Ray Liotta, Robert Patrick and Dennis Haysbert.

Tony Scott's Beat the Devil is possibly the most freakish and daring of the three films. With black humor akin to his True Romance, it takes place in Las Vegas in the house of the devil, played with stunning authority by Gary Oldman. Editor Skip Chaisson captures the spirit of the piece with some superb cuts.

"Beat the Devil is very different for me. I shot on 35mm color and black and white, reversal stock, and even used a hand crank to merge strange techniques together and create a unique feel," explains Scott on the eye-popping appeal of Beat the Devil. "All the different looks are tied to character, story or idea as opposed to just mixing up different media to make something clever for the sake of being hip."

The Driver is hired to deliver to the devil the aging star James Brown, a luminary talent who sold his soul as a young man in exchange for fame and fortune. Now in his twilight years and unable to perform the splits, the rocker comes to Lucifer's lair to renegotiate. The devil won't budge, and instead challenges the singer and The Driver to a drag race through downtown Vegas.

Scott focused on Oldman with an old 1910 hand crank Arri loaded with reversal stock to emphasize him as an other-worldly being. Original lenses were also used on the camera, creating light leaks and weird effects.

"You can never anticipate what you'll get as [the camera's] response to light is wild," underlines Scott. "You get happy accidents - but that's what's great with commercials and short films like the BMW work; you have a chance to try new things which aren't possible in movies. But, as a result of the BMW work, I've decided to take these effects into my next movie [Man on Fire, a project two decades in the making]."

Joe Carnahan's Ticker is equally impressive in scope and feel. From the word 'go' Ticker is a white knuckle ride igniting the screen and throwing the audience into a high-speed chase through the California hills. In it, The Driver tries to deliver a mysterious brief case for a foreign dignitary, while a team of secret agents spray his new BMW Z4 Roadster with bullets from a Huey in a frightening game of cat-and-mouse.