The News: Binary Burns Coming Soon to iTunes

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--As I often tell friends and colleagues: I am no format snob. I can usually be as happy watching a film online or on DVD as I am watching it in the theater, sometimes even more so. Heresy? Perhaps. In any case I'm in the minority, which is why I feel so alone this morning welcoming news of writer-director-star Ed Burns' Tribeca '07 entry Purple Flowers -- co-starring Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson and Debra Messing -- positioning itself as the first feature film to make its distribution debut on iTunes. Movie City News is laughing on the outside and Lou Lumenick tags Burns as "increasingly annoying," and certainly direct-to-download was not likely what the filmmaker or his producers had in mind. But while Violets' target demo isn't ideal for the medium, its $4 million budget might be; between downloads and DVD this may work out just fine in the long run. Now imagine planning a film for release this way from the beginning -- a teen comedy, a horror film or anything budgeted at a recoupable high six/low seven figures. Burns may cling to relevance after all.

--Speaking of online video, Jamie Stuart winds down his NYFF shorts at Filmmaker Magazine with a clever if aggressively self-aware farewell involving equal parts Looney Tunes and John Landis. But the real show appears elsewhere on the blog, where Stuart offers up the slo-mo, single-take short Gravity Wins as part of his review of the new Panasonic AG-HPX500P. I really don't have much to say that I haven't said before: He's brilliant, and it's time to get going on a narrative.

--Glenn Kenny has a "Question of the Day" over at Premiere: "During the shooting of Breathless, was not Jean Seberg in fact the most beautiful woman alive, and even the most beautiful woman who had ever lived?" You mean other than Grace Kelly? Sure, Glenn, I'll meet you halfway.

Posted at October 23, 2007 7:25 AM