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"David's completely
avant-garde attitude towards life make this the right film at the right
time for this approach."
 David Lynch's three-year in the making Inland Empire is to be self distributed in North America, the director announced at the New York Film Festival last Friday. Staring Laura Dern, who takes three roles, the three-hour DV film is set to'explore new models of distribution' according to producer Mary Sweeney. Following agreement from French producers Canal Plus, partnerships with cinemas and home video suppliers are expected to be announced in coming weeks. The director has built up a sizable community of fans with whom he regularly communicates through davidlynch.com, like to form an element of the release.
By Gregg Goldstein - backstage.com
After a flurry of rumors pointing to
just about every indie studio in the business, director David Lynch has
worked out a deal with French producers Studio Canal to self-distribute
his three-hour epic digital video feature "Inland Empire" in the U.S.
and Canada. Producer Mary Sweeney said the plan will "explore a new
model of distribution."
Lynch will work with well-known theatrical and home
video partners to launch his epic fever dream of a film, retaining all
rights to the low-budget project in each service deal. The partnerships
will be announced within the next week. A release slated before the end
of the year, as is an awards season campaign for star and co-producer
Laura Dern.
"Basically we learned a lot from our experiences with
'The Straight Story' and 'Mulholland Drive,'" said Sweeney. "There was
a lot spent on P&A. Those experiences, the new technologies of
digital distribution available today, along with David's completely
avant-garde attitude towards life make this the right film at the right
time for this approach."
Sweeney notes that both digital and transferred 35mm
masters of the film are available, so several options are open to get
the film to the public via digital and conventional methods.
"Empire," which had its premiere at the Venice
International Film Festival as Lynch picked up a Golden Lion lifetime
achievement award, has sharply divided critics both abroad and at its
New York Film Festival North American premiere. The
three-years-in-the-making feature begins with two interwoven stories of
an actress, played by Dern, who is making an onscreen comeback in a
Southern melodrama she's filming called "High in Blue Tomorrows." But
the film soon branches off to follow a third abused and abusive
character also played by Dern. "I figure I have at least three roles,
maybe a few more," she said in an interview.
Each plotline deals with issues of betrayal
in relationships, but the film soon veers off those tracks as it
showcases musical dance sequences, sitcom-style family scenes featuring
people with rabbit heads and dramatic episodes with actors speaking
Polish.
In an interview after a NYFF press screening last
Friday, Lynch said "people are thinking of new ways to begin a film,
new ways of shooting, new ways of post production, and you've got to
come up with new ways of distribution."
He added facetiously that his target audience is
"14-year-old girls in the Midwest ... I would like it to be a summer
blockbuster, but I'm realistic."
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