David Cross of Arrested Development and Mr. Show fame recently directed his first film HITS, a dark comedy about fame, delusion, and social media’s role in our new millennium.
David Cross of Arrested Development and Mr. Show fame recently directed his first film HITS, a dark comedy about fame, delusion, and social media’s role in our new millennium.
The film will show at The Byrd Theatre this Saturday using a unique feature: At Cross’ request, tickets to the film will be “pay what you want”.
Cross has thrown typical independant release models to the wind in an effort to cut out sales agents and distributors in the hope that this will help his film reach a broader audience.
“The offers for this kind of movie, a low-budget indie with no real recognizable stars, were the very traditional idea of… ‘You play for a week in LA and New York, and maybe three other cities,'” said Cross in an interview with Kai Ryssdal for NPR’s Marketplace. “Then it’s straight to video on-demand and Apple iTunes. That wasn’t appealing to me.”
Instead Cross teamed up with BitTorrent and VFX to release it online packaged with interviews and photos for a two week period of time, then Cross took to the road in an effort to get his film as many theatrical screenings as possible.
HITS comes to Richmond thanks to Movie Club Richmond, a group of cinema lovers who typically screen older films for free at Strange Matter, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, and other similar venues. HITS however is different case, seeing as it’s a first run film.
Andrew Blossom of Movie Club was able to secure the film for a Richmond release thanks to Cross’ use of Kickstarter.
“I was originally a Kickstarter supporter of HITS, and as they were raising money David Cross mentioned through the campaign that they were looking for cool places to show the film, because the Kickstarter was raising funds to help distribute it” said Blossom. “So I just reached out through the campaign and said ‘We have this thing called Movie Club, we would love to show it in Richmond and Richmond would love to have it. They were very enthusiastic and responded really fast and we started working on it.”
HITS is the kind of absurd comedy Cross fans have come to expect, with the trailer alone containing many of the writer/comedian/actor/director’s signature bits. Centering on a small town in upstate New York as it deals with viral fame, the film stars such familiar faces as Matt Walsh, Amy Sedaris, and Michael Cera.
“I am a big fan of David Cross, I love his work and I love his humor, and I just wanted to see a movie written and directed by him,” said Blossom. “It struck me that it was the kind of movie that would not come to Richmond unless we did something about it. I wanted to see it on the big screen in Richmond and I felt like I probably wasn’t the only person, so it was worth pursuing.”
Because this was the first time Movie Club had gotten the rights to screen a brand new film they decided to try and change venues.
“This was our first time reaching out to get a brand new movie, and so we thought a theatrical venue would be better-suited for it,” said Blossom. “So we reached out to The Byrd and they were open to it.”
Since reaching out to The Byrd, Movie Club Richmond has set up several first-run showing of new films, as well as some older ones, all set for the spring. One of the films they will be showing is Ned Rifle, an independant drama starring Aubrey Plaza and Liam Aiken, which will also be a first-run showing.
Pre-sale tickets HITS can be purchased from Video Fan and Chop Suey Books for whatever price you wish, though $5 is the suggested amount.
Tickets can also be purchased at The Byrd the day of starting at 1:00 pm. HITS will play at The Byrd Theatre at 1:30 pm on Saturday, March 14th. Hope to see you there.
