Internet Film Has Really Arrived
In every sense, Quantum Project is a movie for the Internet generation.
It is billed as the first Internet feature film with an established cast and crew. And the movie's plot, production values and themes of technology vs. humanity are tailored to appeal to the cyber-sensibilities and fleeting attention span of savvy Web users.
Quantum Project will be available for $3.95 starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday at SightSound.com, which distributes films over the Internet. The transaction is a purchase, not a rental, so viewers can watch the movie as often as they like.
Stephen Dorff stars in the 32-minute movie as Paul Pentcho, a brilliant physicist whose humanity has been stunted by his quest to find God through science. While experimenting in a particle accelerator, Paul has visions of former lover Mia (Fay Masterson) and an encounter with a talking electron that asks him what he wants.
The revelation steers Paul into an examination of chance, fate and will. Freakish coincidence reunites him with Mia, rekindling his struggle between devotion to science or commitment to love.
It's a hackneyed theme, according Associated Press Entertainment Writer David Germain, and Quantum Project asks a lot of stereotypical questions without attempting answers more substantive than that people "can create their own reality."
John Cleese makes his estimable presence felt as Paul's father, an Internet pioneer wrestling with the same questions and lamenting that he, the "OB-Gyn at the birth of the Internet," now lives in fortified isolation.
Appropriately for the Internet medium, Quantum Project plays out like a spoken-word music video, with lightning-quick cuts, fast-motion effects and more form than substance.
The $3 million production has visual effects that might look cheap on a theater screen but appear reasonably impressive on computer or TV screens.
Quantum Project represents a technically solid baby step into the Internet's uncertain future as a movie-delivery system. Creatively, though, it's little more than a collage of impressionistic images stitched together by a loose plot.
If the Internet is going to become a new outlet for first-run films, the requirement is the same as it is for television and movie theaters: If you want an audience, tell a good story.
Still, in the past, movies by independent filmmakers had little life beyond film festivals. Theaters were reluctant to show such movies, worried they wouldn't be able to fill seats. Now, the Net may give such films a chance.
AtomFilms.com, for example, recently bought more than 100 films by former students at the University of Southern California, including George Lucas' Electronic Labyrinth.
"We could have a thousand different films that a thousand different people will watch as opposed to one film 100,000 people will watch," said Curt Marvis, chief xecutive of CinemaNow.com, another Web site that shows movies.
Some Hollywood studios are taking notice of the trend. Trimark Pictures and Miramax Films plan to show over the Internet some movies that have already been released in theaters. Steven Spielberg's pop.com plans to feature short Internet originals this spring.
Quantum Project was made by Metafilmics, which produced the Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come, and was directed by Academy Award-winning art designer Eugenio Zanetti (Restoration).
SightSound.com estimates Quantum Project will take 10 minutes to download with high-speed connections such as DSL or cable and four to six hours for a 56K telephone modem.