Ed Burns "Purple Violet" to skip cinemas and premiere on iTunes

[underpants]

Ed Burns picks iTunes over cinemas for new film's debut

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2007/10/26/burns-movie-itunes.html

Actor-filmmaker Edward Burns is eschewing a traditional theatrical debut for his new film in favour of releasing Purple Violets via Apple's iTunes online store.

"My style of filmmaking is dying on the vine. These small, talky movies have a hard time finding an audience theatrically, so you need to adapt," Burns, who wrote and directed the film, announced this week.

"There are still people who want to see this non-traditional type of film, and now there are non-traditional ways to get them out there."

Purple Violets stars Selma Blair, Debra Messing, Patrick Wilson and Burns, also the director of such indie movies as The Brothers McMullen and She's the One.

The filmmaker said that regardless of the positive reviews his $4-million US film drew at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, it still met with poor distribution offers, thus prompting his decision to debut his film online.

A statement from Apple called it the first movie to "premiere exclusively on iTunes." The film will be available to U.S. buyers for $14.99 US as of Nov. 20.