Aren’t You Even Gonna Download My Movie?

What do you do when a big Hollywood studio takes your film — a brooding, Salinger-esque exploration of hormonal Hawaiian dreams — and chops out its, and by extension, your soul? Back in 1986, when A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, starring River Phoenix and a young Matthew Perry, was pushed out as a teen exploitation flick to tepid reviews, filmmaker William Richert’s options were limited.

But 20 years later, Richert has found a new home for his director’s cut online — on the director’s channels of Veoh, YouTube, and Google Video (albeit, due to individual upload limits, in 20-minute chunks). Which raises the question: In a long tail economy, could straight-to-online be a better opportunity than traditional distribution methods?

Richert was working to get a world debut of the film — which in its current incarnation goes by the title Aren’t You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye? — in a few theaters in Chicago, where it’s set. To build up hype for its potential theatrical release, Richert decided to upload the film in its entirety online, to the aforementioned Veoh, YouTube, and Google Video sites. But in doing so, Richert realized that this online exhibition was the film’s premiere, that by distributing it online many more people would be able to see than a few Chitown cinephiles.

Online distribution of feature films got a huge boost recently when Edward Burns released his Purple Violets exclusively through Apple’s iTunes. And Netflix has been helping distribute independent films through its Red Envelope Entertainment division, which could, in theory, be streamed through its online “watch instantly” feature. As the studio’s monopoly on distribution becomes less important in an on-demand world, filmmakers are finding their options broadened by broadband.

But what are the chances that a feature film could become a viral hit? The technology is there. Just as DVDs have allowed filmmakers to re-release (and re-re-release) their films, the online world could allow for all those deleted scenes, commentary extras, and space for the theatrical, director’s, and “definitive” cuts of every film. Richert, for example, has uploaded a video an original song Phoenix wrote and performed for the end credits of Kiss Me Goodbye? (embedded above) which otherwise would never have been seen.

Last we spoke with Richert, he was planning on talking to online independent film distributor Jaman about making a much higher quality version available through Jaman’s online rental and purchase services. “This’ll be a boon for River Phoenix fans everywhere!” Richert explained excitedly. Indeed, the new film has already been picked up on fan sites dedicated the late heartthrob, who has a huge and dynamic online fan base.

A film like this could find a very amenable home and dedicated audience online. The current iteration is grainy and segmented, but perhaps a deal with Jaman could give it a higher definition exhibition and send some money back to a striking Hollywood writer. Those teeny-boppers who saw the watered-down A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon back in the yuppie-dom of the 1980s are now grown up and tech-savvy and are the perfect audience for Aren’t You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye? Just as online video gave the individual power over the television, online video is poised to liberate the filmmaker from the studio system.