"There’s got to be a better way to reach audiences who dig these movies," filmmaker Edward Burns wondered aloud to me this morning over breakfast in Times Square. Indeed, it's been increasingly difficult to catch Burns' directing efforts on the big screen in recent years. "We could barely get anybody into the theaters on my last two films," he admits. That won't be a problem for his latest film, "Purple Violets," starring Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson, and Debra Messing, alongside Burns himself. You won't find it in any theaters. Instead the film debuted exclusively today on iTunes where you can download it for $14.99. It's the first experiment of its kind with such a high profile project being released exclusively to the web giant.

Burns says the small screen debut wasn't the intention for the film back when it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year but today its unusual distribution strategy doesn't bother him one bit. "This is the year that art house cinema died," he says. Referring to the box office disappointments that have been "Rendition" and "Lions for Lambs," Burns continued "If they’re not going to see Reese Witherspoon and Tom Cruise they’re not coming out to see me and Patrick Wilson. The audience isn’t there anymore." Read more...