Whedon releases new film 'In Your Eyes' online
He might not have the same moves, but Joss Whedon can drop a release without warning just like Beyonce.
The pop singer unveiled her digital album in December out of nowhere, and now Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has a big surprise for his legion of fans: In lieu of theatrical distribution, he's making his new movie, In Your Eyes, available now for a $5 digital stream at InYourEyesMovie.com. It is the second indie release from Whedon and partner/wife Kai Cole's Bellwether Pictures production company.
"It's exciting for us because it means we get to explore yet another new form of distribution — and we get $5," says Whedon, who directed The Avengersand wrote the screenplay for the new movie.
In Your Eyes, which had its world premiere Sunday night at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, is a supernatural love story directed by Brin Hill. It centers on two people who believe they have been psychically connected since childhood.
On the East Coast, Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) is living a lonely life as wife to a successful yet cold doctor (Mark Feuerstein). But she sometimes sees things through the eyes of someone on the other side of the country — and vice versa. An ex-con, Dylan (Michael Stahl-David), is trying to find a fresh start for himself in New Mexico while also dealing with the same feeling of being inexplicably drawn to someone else out there.
"It's about two people, classic Joss loner heroes, who are looking to break out of their limited circumstances and band together — a la The Avengers and anything else he's done — and find connection and meaning," says Hill, who wrote the movies Won't Back Down and Battle of the Year.
Like Whedon's best-known works — the TV series Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, among others — In Your Eyes is a hybrid mix of genres, which was a natural match for an admittedly "strange dude" like Hill.
"I'm this weird Irish kid from Boston who thought he was Jamaican for a little while and spent a little time in New York before moving to the beach in Venice" at 12, the director says. "I've always had this strange outsider thing, and I think I definitely fit with Joss' work on that level."
There is a theme of "love can find you anywhere," Kazan says, and she thinks In Your Eyes will appeal to fans of Whedon's dialogue and wit, especially between his on-screen lovers.
"For those Buffy fans who are really on the Angel tear," she adds, "there's a lot there in this one. He wrote this script when he was real young, and you see that young man's romanticism in it."
Kazan and Stahl-David have a surprising on-screen chemistry, even though "they're not really ever in the same place, in the same room, throughout this whole film."
Whedon calls In Your Eyes quirky and different, much like his contemporary adaptation last year of Shakepeare's Much Ado About Nothing, the first release from Bellwether.
Hill recalls that everybody involved with In Your Eyes became really excited when Beyonce found success with her surprise album.
"We've been watching that evolution and there's something really cool about a brand like Joss or a brand like Beyonce doing that, just dropping it on you," Hill says. "All of a sudden it's like, 'There it is. Bam.' You can consume it right now — and hopefully you like it."
Adds Kazan: "It's really cool to see a movie immediately and in an egalitarian way. You're seeing it the same way in Alaska as you'll be seeing it in Singapore as you'll be seeing it in Los Angeles."
Not only does a digital release make sense for Whedon, but it's also an opportunity for Hill to deliver to a worldwide audience.
"That doesn't mean he can't make Avengers 2 that goes to 4 billion screens, and I can't go and direct a studio movie next," Hill says. "It's not the normal traditional indie model, and for me as a filmmaker, it's thrilling that there's more options.
"And I'm blessed to be working with somebody who's a loud voice."