“We wanted to give our members a first, exclusive look — their own seat at the premiere, so to speak,” founder/director Lucas Kazan told XBIZ.
“We're streaming one episode [scene] only, out of five, before the movie becomes available to mail order in October. We experimented a year ago, with ‘The School for Lovers,’ and we were met with a phenomenal response. With ‘The Men I Wanted,’ we pushed the envelope a little further and made this online premiere a bit more official,” Kazan said.
Kazan started his company in 1998, and specializes in big-budget features with lush Mediterranean locations and European talent. “The Men I Wanted,” is his 16th feature in 10 years and stars Lucas Kazan exclusive Jean Franko, Ethan Clarke and Roberto Giorgio.
After the success of launching “The School For Lovers” on his website, Kazan said that while DVD sales remain his bread and butter, he sees trends in the changing marketplace as an opportunity to utilize the Internet as a promotional tool as well as a distribution format.
“As DVD sales dwindle, I foresee distribution strategies [changing] 180 degrees,” Kazan said, “with online opportunities growing stronger and the DVD market becoming more and more peripheral. We aren't there yet. But the transition is happening before our very eyes and much, much faster than we all had anticipated.”
