Who’s afraid of films on cell phones?
3 Italia has been given the rights to transmit The Interpreter on videophones, according to the Milan Court, winning its appeal against Eagle Pictures and intimidating the film distribution company into handing over Sidney Pollack’s film to 3 Italia, as well as all films included in their contract.
The agreement – the first ever between a distribution and telephone company – stipulated that Eagle would place at 3 Italia’s disposal a series of first-run films ten days after their theatrical release, which could be downloaded for seven days for 9 euro. This absolute novelty in the world of distribution incited numerous exhibitors to withdraw the film from their cinemas. Eagle was then forced to sign a pledge guaranteeing a "window" of at least four months between a film’s theatrical release and its videophone distribution.
Now the Court of Milan is putting everything back under debate. Eagle Pictures has already announced it will appeal the ruling, while the exhibitors’ association re-affirms its “no” against simultaneous programming. A convention will be held tomorrow at Rome’s Casa Cinema on "Cinema e telefonia: incontro o scontro?" [roughly translated, "Cinema and Telephones: For or Against?].
(Translated from Italian)
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