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BILL GATES ASSASINATION "DOCUMENTARY" TO BE AVAILABLE ON DVD DVD Will Feature Additional Crime Scene "Evidence" January 19, Orlando, Florida -- NOTHING SO STRANGE, the critically acclaimed and award-winning faux documentary about the fictional assassination of Bill Gates, will be released on DVD on February 11, 2004, announced executive producers GMD Studios. The title will be available directly through the film's website (www.nothingsostrange.com), at selected retail outlets, and at online retailers including Amazon.com and affiliate sites. The cleverly conceived and hyper-realistic movie focuses on a grassroots group called "Citizens For Truth" and its investigation of the Gates assassination in Los Angeles' MacArthur Park. The group believes the Los Angeles Police Department may have covered up the true facts about the crime, and the film is peppered with numerous references to real-life historical events and examples of police corruption. "The DVD format has allowed us to blur the lines even more between reality and fiction," says the film's director, Brian Flemming. The generous bonus materials on the DVD, amounting to an extra hour of video and audio footage, include "forensic" evidence related to the Bill Gates assassination as well as direct links to many Web pages that are part of the film's vast "universe" on the World Wide Web. The DVD also includes an "in-character" commentary track in which the director and cast hash out details of the assassination. NOTHING SO STRANGE has been one of the most talked-about films on the festival circuit since its debut at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City in 2002. It won The New York Times Claiborne Pell Award for Original Vision at the 2002 Newport Film Festival. Industry bible Varietycalled it "a crackling good movie" that "may be the ideal prototype film for the digital age." NOTHING SO STRANGE has attracted coverage from CNN, Fox News, LA Times, NY Post, Drudge Report, Wired, USA Todayand Time. NOTHING SO STRANGE most recently made news by being the first worldwide "e-premiere." It debuted theatrically in Seattle on the same day (October 24, 2003) that the film became available for paid download worldwide. The film has since been downloaded by viewers around the globe. With the DVD release, NOTHING SO STRANGE achieves another first: A virtual "2nd DVD" of bonus materials will be available on the Web, purchasable a la carte via the BitPass micropayment system. The DVD links to a Web page (or users can manually enter a URL) where individual clips, music from the soundtrack and other digital elements can quickly and easily be purchased for prices ranging from 5 cents to one dollar each. (These Web bonus materials are in addition to those already included on the DVD.) "BitPass provides the payment and access control capabilities that make the bonus material distribution possible. This is a perfect example of the Internet diversity that BitPass enables," said Kurt Huang, BitPass CEO. "BitPass was a crucial part of the earlier successful web premiere of Nothing So Strange and continues to grow the possibilities for creative content distribution." BitPass recently enabled the Clear Channel and KMEL online sales of exclusive Alicia Keys concert photos and video clips from her new album "Diary of Alicia Keys". Pre-orders for this highly anticipated NOTHING SO STRANGE DVD will be taken starting in late January. Suggested retail price is $14.99. ABOUT THE TEAM:
BRIAN FLEMMING, Writer/Director Brian Flemming wrote and directed NOTHING SO STRANGE. Also a playwright, Flemming co-wrote the Off-Broadway hit "Bat Boy: The Musical" (Best Off-Broadway Musical 2001--Lucille Lortel Awards and Outer Critics Circle; 8 Drama Desk nominations), and produced and directed segments for the Independent Film Channel's former newsmagazine show "Split Screen." He is the co-founder of Slumdance, an alternative festival that appeared in Park City in 1997. GMD STUDIOS GMD Studios and its President, Brian Clark, serve as Executive Producers for NOTHING SO STRANGE. GMD Studios is a groundbreaking new media production firm based in Orlando, Florida. Since its founding in 1994, GMD Studios has engaged in a number of areas of Internet and media production, with an emphasis on the experimental nature of the Web and what it means for independent media producers. GMD Studios is the publisher of the leading independent film trade, indieWIRE, the most prominent online medium that reports on independent film industry. BITPASS, INC. BitPass, Inc. headquartered in Palo Alto, California, provides a micropayment system for online content and services. Founded in 2002, the company is privately funded by Garage Technology Ventures, Cardinal Venture Capital, and Amicus Capital. The system allows users to purchase access to the file through a prepaid debit card funded through trusted third parties including PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. BitPass is working with a wide variety of businesses that create and provide a broad array of content and services including music, comics, film, photography and database access. Contact: For NOTHING SO STRANGE Regina Santos Fluent Public Relations 323.848.3099 For BitPass David Wright Focusone 925.975.0711 dwright@focusonemarketing.com # # #
10 FACTS ABOUT NOTHING SO STRANGE
A complete press kit and high-resolution images are
available at: 1. Actor Steve Sires, who plays Bill Gates, was once hired by Microsoft to double as the Microsoft Chairman for an in-house video. 2. Actor David James was featured in a Microsoft advertising campaign. 3. On April 4, 2003, the South Korean stock market crashed after local TV stations reported that Bill Gates had been assassinated. The reporters had been confused by a hacker who copied a page from NOTHING SO STRANGE's Web universe and made it look like a current CNN news story. 4. The character Julia Serrano is based on a real-life woman named Sandra Serrano, who in 1968 claimed she heard people running away from the scene of the Robert Kennedy assassination saying, "We shot him." Just as they do to the fictional Julia in NOTHING SO STRANGE, the LAPD coerced a change in her statement out of Sandra Serrano, because her claim did not fit the "Sirhan acted alone" official scenario. 5. Many other names, dates and places in the movie were chosen by director Brian Flemming for their historical significance. Alleged Gates assassin "Alek Hidell" is an alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald. The young police officer "Jacob Powell" -- who kills Hidell -- is a combination of Oswald-assassin Jack Ruby's real first name and the last name of Lawrence Powell, the rookie LAPD officer who struck the most vicious blows on Rodney King. 6. Haxan Films, the team behind "The Blair Witch Project" collaborated with GMD Studios to create the film's rich Web universe, which has been called "brilliant and ingenious" by Wired.com. 7. The film is almost entirely unscripted, with actors being given rough scenarios by director Brian Flemming at the beginning of each day of shooting. 8. The production team attended real events in Los Angeles to capture certain scenes. Flemming posed as a news cameraman at two Los Angeles Police Commission meetings to film David James stepping up to the public microphone to protest the commission's inaction on the Gates assassination. 9. As reported in Wired, NOTHING SO STRANGE is an "open source" project. The raw footage that makes up the film is available to anyone who wants to use it. Users don't have to ask for permission or pay any royalties. The film itself is copyrighted but the individual elements within the film are not. 10. A Microsoft spokesman told the San Jose Mercury News: "It is very disappointing that a movie maker would do something like this." |
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