From the moment he stormed the indie film scene with The Brothers McMullen at Sundance back in 1995, Ed Burns has always been a bit of a revolutionary. Now, 12 years and seven directorial efforts later, Burns is making headlines once again with Purple Violets, which will make history as the first feature film to premiere exclusively on iTunes.
A hit at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Purple Violets, which stars Selma Blair, Debra Messing, Patrick Wilson and Burns himself, had no shortage of traditional distribution interest. But feeling that the “old way of releasing specialized films” wasn’t working for his films, Burns decided to test the Internet waters. This month, he’ll find out if the experiment paid off—and whether his dream of Long Island commuters watching his movie on their iPhones comes to fruition. Just days before his November 20th iTunes premiere, Burns spoke with MM about niche moviemaking, the downside of a limited theatrical release and being an iTunes pilgrim.
Jennifer Wood (MM): It’s rare for a Hollywood player to take a chance in an unproven market. What was the key factor for you in deciding to take a chance on an iTunes release for your Purple Violets?
Ed Burns (EB): For us it was sort of recognizing that the old model, or the old way of releasing specialized films, wasn’t working. There were too many good small films that were just getting ignored by the public, so my thinking was ‘There’s gotta be a better way to reach those people who actually want to see your films.’
MM: But the film played well to really enthusiastic crowds at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, so it would seem that there would have been normal, traditional distribution offers for the film. What appealed to you about the iTunes premiere, from a creative perspective as well as a business one?
EB: Well, we were talking with several distributors and had an offer from a company that I had worked at before and it was the same model–the platform release, New York, LA, let’s wait for the reviews [and] our per-screen averages that first weekend, and we’ll go to the next eight markets, the next 12 markets and we’ll roll out that way. That has been my career for 12 years, but I would say for the last seven years that hasn’t worked for my films.
Because I tend to get some name actors in my films, we’re always able to generate more publicity than your super no-budget film that’s got a bunch of unknown actors in it. However, I would do Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Mohr might be on “The Howard Stern Show” and Brittany Murphy will be on the cover of Elle and–especially in this very crowded marketplace, not just for movies but for everything else–you have your three days where there’s a high awareness of your title. But if you only open in New York and L.A., that’s national publicity but only people in two cities can see films. So we started to think, what are the other ways that–when we get to that weekend or that week leading up to the weekend, when people actually know the title of your film and who’s in it–how do we reach the fans that we know like my movies? ‘Cause even though the movies tanked theatrically, the DVDs have always done really solid business, so we knew there were people out there that liked the films.
So myself and my two producers, Aaron Lubin and Pam Murphy, were brainstorming and the idea came up, ‘What about approaching iTunes?’ They had never premiered a film before… We thought this is where it seems to be going, so why not be on the cutting-edge of this technology– and we can’t do any worse than the last three films of mine have done theatrically, so maybe we can do better. Fortunately Pam Murphy, the woman who financed this film, was willing to gamble on the new media.
MM: Since you are the first person to premiere a feature on iTunes, you get that added press, too.
EB: There is that, yeah. We never really factored that in or gave that much thought cause the press, it still may very well prove to be not necessarily positive. I think it was more about… none of my films have played theatrically in St. Louis since 1996. There are plenty of people there who like my stuff, so maybe now they can see it on the day it opens.
MM: Exactly. Is there any thing you can see though as a threat to the success of this experiment?
EB: I don’t, you know. You’re a filmmaker, and especially as a kid in film school, you dream of sitting in the movie theater and seeing yourself projected on a big screen. I mean, that’s why I think people become filmmakers and actors. You fall in love with the environment and the feeling you get sitting in a theater with an audience. That being said, my movies to date haven’t been cinematic experiences. My movies are small, talky films about people wrestling with human issues. It isn’t about great set pieces or action or special effects. Do I really want people to watch my film on their iPhone? No. But I feel like I can’t stay in love with the old model in the same way that… an audiophile [will] talk to me about an MP3 that’s lacking in quality [and you] can only listen to that record on vinyl. That may be true–maybe it sounds better on vinyl–but that is not our current reality. Sounds fine on my iPod.
MM: On the subway…
EB: If someone’s watching Purple Violets on their iPhone commuting to work on the Long Island Railroad, I’m totally cool with that and happy that they’re doing it.
MM: And like you were saying about that fantasy, it’s better that than nothing.
EB: Without a doubt. You want people to see your film. I mean, we all sit there and watch that little 2×2 screen on YouTube, a thousand different things, and have grown accustomed to that viewing experience, so why not embrace the change?
MM: Like you said, it’s just the reality we’re in right now. So with all that being said, and in addition to how much money studios as well as individual moviemakers put into a shoot–marketing and distributing–and the trajectory we’re going in, do you see a time when the movie theater will become extinct or obsolete?
EB: I don’t. I think for certain films you can already see that trend happening. I think I read it in Variety–I can’t remember exactly–but about six months ago I read some article that said for specialized films, films that were released on 300 screens or less, attendance is down over 50 percent in the last year. I know from my own viewing habits in the last years–Netflix didn’t exist five years ago, movies on demand didn’t exist seven years ago, now downloading movies and being able to play movies on iPods and iPhones didn’t exist. The fact that the DVD window is getting shorter and shorter… Lars and the Real Girl is a movie really I wanna see. But I got two kids, and there’s no way I’m giving up a Friday night to go see a small indie when I know it’ll be on DVD probably before the end of the year. So why not wait? You go to see a specialized movie a lot because it’s a relevant conversation piece. Or I should say it’s a conversation piece, and it will still be a relevant conversation piece three months from now. Whereas when the window used to be nine months, it no longer was. So I think that has affected people–the reason you don’t go to The Angelika with the same frequency you used to.
MM: So with this experimental distribution by Internet that you are at the forefront of, and you were a big part of the Sundance indie moviemaking scene in the 1990s, what is left for you to conquer?
EB: For me, I’ve done eight of these little films now. This budget was $4 million, and my biggest budget was for a movie called No Looking Back, we had $5 million. In film school, I was the Woody Allen/Truffaut fanatic and only wanted to tell stories of people in apartments in New York kevetching about their lives. But I think that is a style that is no longer popular. So I think the direction I’ll go in now, the movie I’m making next, is a studio film and it’s a $30 million budget and it’s a genre film and it’s very different from anything I’ve done before. So in the next couple years, I’m gonna move in that direction and kind of say goodbye to the specialized film world for a while.
Purple Violets, starring Ed Burns, Selma Blair, Debra Messing and Patrick Wilson, will be available for purchase and download on iTunes for $14.99 beginning on November 20 for $14.99. The iTunes Store will be the only place to get the movie for the first month of its release.
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