Twisted’s Internet Killer

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Twisted Pictures, the production company responsible for the ‘Saw’ movie series, and Break.com announced a deal Monday to create a movie whose first distribution window will be the Internet. The deal was put together by Ubiquity Partners, one of those only-in-LA firms that acts as a matchmaker for content creators, advertisers and websites. So far, so good. Break.com was launched during the dot-com bubble as a time-wasting haven for young men, offering short videos that tried to be racy, funny, outrageous or all of the above. Eclipsed by YouTube as a place to watch (or post) user-generated video, it has been striking deals with TV networks and other content providers for more professional-grade content to mix in with clips of kids kicking vending machines. Hence the partnership with Twisted Pix. The catch is, the movie won’t be streamed in its entirety on Break.com. Instead, it will be chopped into three-minute segments and distributed as a serial. The approach may be time-honored, but seriously, three-minute segments? Is that any way to tell a story?

Former Disney boss Michael Eisner thinks so. He recently launched Vuguru, a production company that makes short, serialized videos for computers and cellphones. Its first effort, ‘Prom Queen,’ is being done in 80 90-second segments. Still, what Break.com and Twisted are doing seems more like an effort to shoehorn yesterday’s art form into today’s technology. Admitting as much, Twisted executive Oren Koules told Variety, ‘We are making this just like any other feature.’ Wouldn’t it be better to treat the platform offered by Break.com as an opportunity to make ‘The Internet Killer’ in a completely different way, one that takes advantage of the medium? More like, say, what Steven Bochco is doing on Metacafe?

In Twisted Pictures’ defense, the ‘Internet Killer’ project promises to give viewers the chance to ‘create their own content for the show,’ as the press release from Ubiquity put it. No telling what that will be at this point; the movie doesn’t have a script or director yet. Nevertheless, the studio expects the project to hit PC screens this summer.