Actor to Hollywood: Think
Direct-to-Home Movies
By SARAH MCBRIDE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 18, 2005; Page B4
You've heard of movies that go directly to DVDs. Now, get ready for directly to homes.
Actor Morgan Freeman and his movie company, Revelations Entertainment, have teamed up with Intel Corp. to try to push Hollywood into broader distribution for movies.
Revelations and Intel have set up a home in Santa Monica, Calif., intended to demonstrate to industry executives how movies could be piped directly to TV sets, possibly bypassing theaters altogether. Intel is involved with hopes of selling more high-end chips that go in the entertainment computers and portable players that facilitate digital home distribution, as well as setting industry standards on digital distribution.
Most studios follow the established pattern of theatrical release, followed by pay TV, DVD release and then television. But Mr. Freeman says that movies would do better if they could go right into homes, say via secure Internet transmission, and then onto TV screens via home networks that link computers, TV sets, stereo systems and the like.
The two companies say that many piracy-fearing Hollywood executives don't realize online distribution is far more secure than DVD technology.
But Mr. Freeman says he thinks theater owners will get over their initial fears.
"We're not pushing this technology -- the technology is pushing us," he says of online distribution, alluding to the growing problem with illegal movie downloading.
"If we don't do it, we're going to wind up like the music industry," he adds.
Record companies blame years of declining sales, which only recently have started to pick up, on online piracy.
Others have tried experimenting with distribution. Late last year, "Noel," a moving starring Penelope Cruz and Susan Sarandon, came out on disposable DVD at the same time that it was slated for theaters.
But theater owners balked at putting it on their screens, upset that they were losing possible ticket buyers to the disposable DVD. In the end, it went into just a handful of theaters, and disappeared quickly.
Releasing directly to television or DVD is generally Hollywood shorthand for a movie so bad it couldn't get theatrical distribution. But Mr. Freeman and his partners at Intel argue that doesn't apply to the Internet, which users perceive as cool.
