John Cleese Movie To Debut on Web

Anick Jesdanun

Saturday, May 6, 2000 | 9:39 a.m.

NEW YORK -- When movie producer Stephen Simon shopped around his latest project, he had one condition: The film must be shown on computers, not in theaters.

On Friday, his "Quantum Project" will have its worldwide premiere on SightSound.com.

Billed as the first extended Internet movie with an established crew and cast, including actor John Cleese and director Eugenio Zanetti, the $3 million movie marks yet another milestone in the runaway growth of the Web.

Thousands of short and feature films from lesser-known filmmakers are already online. Some, like "Quantum Project," are original to the Net; others, shelved since film school, are now finding an audience.

Improved, and improving, Internet technology is making this possible.

The producers of "Quantum Project" spent months researching digital technology the film was not shot on film at all to produce the best images. The movie is only 32 minutes, to keep the files manageable.

Plus, distributors decided to make viewers download the entire film before watching, rather than use a "streaming" technology that often means grainy, jerky images.

Watching on a small computer window is still nothing like the big screen or even television. And Simon insisted replacing theaters isn't the goal. The goal, he said, is to develop an additional means of delivering movies and to create films specifically for computers.

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 executive of CinemaNow.com, another Web site that shows movies.

Internet users unable to attend film festivals are already looking for new releases online. "It's a way to keep up with filmmakers," said Aurora Holley, a movie buff in Salt Lake City.

For documentary filmmakers, in particular, the medium offers new ways of telling stories.

For example, Laura Kissel, a professor at the University of South Carolina, has too much material on beauty parlors. So she may run outtakes on the Internet "one on each beauty parlor." Doug Block, a New Yorker who released a documentary on iFilm.com, added Web links to the final scene for viewers to continue following specific characters.

Simon and Barnet Bain, who together produced the Robin Williams movie "What Dreams May Come," crafted "Quantum Project" with the Internet in mind. The movie, about a physicist who discovers life beyond the lab, features computer imagery for instance, tool bars and windows to track characters' thoughts.

The movie's computer file equals some 80 million characters of text, so downloads should take about 10 minutes on a high-speed modem and four hours on a regular one. SightSound.com, which financed the film, will charge $3.95 per computer.

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.

This fall, a film festival in Columbia, S.C., will add an Internet category.

To Simon Tarr, a filmmaker and professor at Pennsylvania State University, making movies for the Internet is no longer "something you're doing because you didn't have what it takes for Hollywood."

On the Net:

"Quantum Project" at http://www.sightsound.com

Films by Simon Tarr at http://www.berserker-rage.com

Other general sites, http://atomfilms.com, http://ifilm.com, http:// cinemanow.com