• April 4, 2011

Chrysler LLC's Dodge brand is partnering with Universal Pictures around the studio's upcoming return of the Fast and Furious franchise. Dodge will tout the Charger in the latest film, Fast Five, which premiers April 29.

Besides having several 2010 and 2011 Chargers in chase scenes throughout the movie, and are driven by the film's protagonist Dom Toretto. The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based automaker and the studio broke a TV spot touting the film and the car during the Final Four.

Universal Partnerships and Licensing President Stephanie Sperber said, in a statement, that the partnership is the biggest to date in the film franchise.

The TV spot uses a "car chases make movies better" theme and brings back a historical anachronism used in a prior Charger ad meant to depict American revolutionaries attacking loyalists in Charger's. The ad posits an Elizabethan-era mother lecturing her daughter about sullying the family name by carrying on in a relationship with Cornelius, an un-scrubbed son of a blacksmith's apprentice, all the while driving "fast and furiously" as they are being tailed. The scene ends with the mother outrunning Cornelius, revealing the tagline "Car Chases Make Movies Better."

Dodge's sponsorship includes a new website, simulcast of the film's premier in Rio de Janeiro, where it takes place, a co-branded NASCAR racer, branded merchandise and a sweepstakes dangling a modified version of the car for five winners.