Soderbergh: first VOD

The next Steven Soderbergh movie, «Girlfriend Experience», will be distributed online before being released in theatres.

Director Steven Soderbergh has always marched to a different drummer. Projects like «The Good German», «Ocean's Twelve», «Full Frontal» and «Kafka» all flirted with experimental cinema, and Soderbergh has also been know for his surprise releases: in 2006, «Bubble» was broadcast on HDNet at the same time as being released in theatres, and the DVD came out 4 days later.

His latest movie, «Girlfriend Experience», is also getting special treatment. Not only does it feature porn star Sasha Grey, he also made a deal with Amazon to sell the movie via VOD (video-on-demand) three weeks before its release.

He may not be the only one to go this route in the future; the majors will probably start to adopt this method ­ if they ever get over their hostility towards Internet downloads. Last weekend may stand out as an important date for movie distribution and push the majors along: despite being downloaded illegally by hundreds of thousands of users before its release, «Wolverine» took in a colossal $87 million in North America, proving there are still enough fans out there willing to pay to watch a movie (even if it was trashed by the critics) on the big screen than on their small ones at home for free.