If you told me a week ago that a film industry giant like Paramount–notorious for its anti-pirate stance–would be willing to work with any group even remotely advocating piracy in order to release and distribute a movie, I'd have taken your bet and wagered my life savings, my house, my left leg, and my firstborn.
And I'd have lost, because that's exactly what's happening now. Distracted Media, an Australian film studio, is crowdsourcing its latest production, The Tunnel, by selling individual frames of the movie at $1 a pop. Of course, buying one of these frames won't give you much more than bragging rights, but Distracted Media believes it can generate enough interest to sell all 135,000 frames. As an added incentive, the studio has decided that it will choose one frame of the 135,000, and the "owner" of that frame will recieve 1% of the movie's gross. Interested in buying a frame or two? Buy a frame or two here.
When the film is finished, it will be available as a torrent for free. At the same time, however, Paramount Pictures will release a DVD version, with enough extra content, it says, to entice customers away from the free BitTorrent version. Although, with the piracy scene being what it is, it's more than likely that the extra content–deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc.–will be available on BitTorrent almost immediately as well. Producer and editor Enzo Tedeschi told TorrentFreak, "From day one we’ve maintained that The Tunnel is not supporting or condoning piracy, but instead trying to incorporate a legitimate use of peer-to-peer in our distribution strategy internationally."
