film

Hulu said Tuesday that it has signed an exclusive streaming deal with The Criterion Collection, a privately held video distribution company that specializes in arthouse and foreign-language films, to bring to its $7.99-per-month premium service, Hulu Plus, the over 800 titles to which Criterion holds digital streaming rights. Criterion's digital streaming line-up includes films from such "auteur" directors as Antonioni, Bergman, Bresson, Bunuel, Chabrol, Chaplin, Clouzot, Cocteau, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Fassbinder, Fellini, Godard, Kaurismaki, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Lang, Malle, Ozu, Renoir, Tati, Truffaut, Varda, and Welles.

Here is a round-up of some other recent interactive TV-related stories that we didn't have room for in this issue:

MTV Networks and Twentieth Century Fox have announced plans for an interactive/social live-streaming event designed to promote the new James Cameron movie, "Avatar" (note: an Adobe AIR-based, clickable, interactive video trailer for "Avatar" was launched last week--see the article published on itvt.com, November 30th). The event, dubbed "Avatar Live" and sponsored by LG Mobile Phones, will stream in HD simultaneously on MTV..com and Facebook on December 3rd at 3:00PM Eastern/12:00PM Pacific, and will be followed by a "Behind the Screen" episode devoted to "Avatar" that will also air in December.

Fox Filmed Entertainment has launched an interactive trailer for James Cameron's new movie, "Avatar." The desktop-based trailer has been available for download since November 24th on the movie's official Web site (http://www.avatarmovie.com), via the movie's social network profiles on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and via Adobe's Web site.

Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE) has announced plans to distribute an original interactive thriller, entitled "Circle of 8" and produced by Milchan/Van Eyssen (MVE), which will integrate branding from Pepsi-Cola's Mountain Dew product and which is slated to debut in October exclusively on MySpace.

UK-based wireless mobile operator, O2, announced Tuesday that it is teaming with movie-theater advertising company, Pearl & Dean, to bring an interactive 3D game, called "Asteroid Storm," to 20 Vue movie theaters across the UK this summer. According to the company, the game will "take families on a big-screen adventure that they can control from their seats" and represents the first time that movie-goers in the UK will be able to play and control an interactive 3D game.

Earlier this month, Viacom, its Paramount Pictures unit, MGM Studios
and Lionsgate announced that they have formed a joint venture that will
launch a premium VOD service and linear-TV channel in the fall of
2009. According to the companies, the venture will have access to
Paramount and Paramount Vantage titles released theatrically on or
after January 1st, 2008, and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles
released theatrically on or after January 1st, 2009: it will have exclusive
access during the pay-television window to such recent and upcoming
films as "Iron Man," "Star Trek," "Cloverfield," "Shutter Island," "Love
Guru" and "Valkyrie" and various currently-in-production titles,
including new installments of the "Robocop" series, the companies say.