So with the Weinstein’s leaving Miramax to truly fill their movie Mogul ambitions, people like Mark Cuban are stepping in to fill the void in filmmaking that Miramax seemingly used to. With the film Bubble he is executing his plan of financing a group of films (by Steven Soderbergh this round) and then releasing them simultaneously in all three channels–theater, HD-TV, and DVD.  And now we read about this, a new Cuban venture called Truly Indie, which is a sort of self-service framework for filmmakers to essentially rent screens using Truly Indie’s established partnerships and systems with Landmark and other theaters. 

There are a number of interesting quotes in the article from "I believe the film distribution system is rather closed" to "plain and simple it’s a way for indie filmmakers to slide by the gatekeepers," both sentiments that I agree with.  I also find it interesting that they titled the venture "Truly Indie," which definitely draws attention to the truly non-indie-ness of the existing indie product out there (Garden State anyone?). So while Truly Indie is probably a good step for filmmakers, I see it as really an incremental one. On the upside, it streamlines for the filmmaker an old and risky tactic of renting theater screens on their own dime. It’s nice for a filmmaker to have a simple "plug and play" framework now, but that doesn’t change the inherent geographic limitations of theatrical release and non-existent marketing budgets that indie filmmakers must face.

The fact is that movies that are released via Truly Indie will most likely never be screened in a theater near my house. What I think will be interesting is if they combine the theatrical release with a DVD release, like Cuban is doing with Soderbergh. I think a step like that can really free a "truly indie" film from theater constraints, allowing it’s popularity to spread faster, and put some money into filmmakers’ pockets.