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Director Wayne Wang releases film on Internet
2008-10-19
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Hong Kong-born director Wayne Wang became the latest director to premiere a film on the Internet on Friday, unveiling new drama "The Princess of Nebraska" on YouTube. Wang, 59, best known for his 1993 film "The Joy Luck Club" and cult 1995 indie movie "Smoke", issued the film online as a companion piece to "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers", recently released in US theatres. The 77-minute minute drama is based on a story by Beijing-born writer Yiyun Li, about a Chinese exchange student in America who finds herself pregnant. Magnolia Pictures said the release of the film for free on youtube.com/ytscreeningroom, a channel dedicated to film content, was part of a broader distribution strategy. While the music industry has been quick to embrace the concept of releasing albums via the Internet -- most notably Radiohead's "In Rainbows" in 2007 -- the practice is rare in Hollywood because of piracy concerns. Oscar-winning independent film-maker Michael Moore, however, bucked the trend last month when he issued his new movie "Slacker Uprising," about young voters at the 2004 US election, free for downoad via the Internet.
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