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Airdate: The Tunnel

Showtime will screen The Tunnel, the Australian horror flick financed by members of the public, just hours after its world premiere.

Showtime will screen Australian horror flick The Tunnel next month, just hours after its world premiere screening and a day before its DVD and online global release via Bit Torrent.

The film was shot in Sydney and its $135,000 budget was financed with $1 shares from the public, via Distracted Media Film in association with Zapruder’s Other Films and DLSHS Film.

Check out this poster image which carries the names of the people who purchased a $1 share.

Directed by Carlo Ledesma, “The Tunnel” was shot entirely in Sydney and in many of its disused tunnels and features an all Australian cast. The movie follows a news film crew’s journey into the city’s mysterious underground hunting for a “story” before the “story” turns on the investigative team.

In 2007 the NSW government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilise the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney. In 2008, chasing rumours of a government cover-up and urban legends surrounding the sudden back-flip, investigative journalist Natasha Warner (Bel Delia) led a crew of four (Andy Rodoreda as Peter Ferguson, Steve Davis as Steve Miller, Luke Arnold as Jim ‘Tangles’ Williams) into the underground labyrinth.

They went down into the tunnels looking for a story – until the story found them.

This is the film of their harrowing ordeal. With unprecedented access to the recently declassified tapes they shot in the claustrophobic subway tunnels, as well as a series of candid interviews with the survivors, we come face to face with the terrifying truth.

This never before seen footage takes us deep inside the tunnels bringing the darkness to life and capturing the raw fear that threatens to tear the crew apart, leaving each one of them fighting for their lives.

Distracted Media’s Enzo Tedeschi said” We are ecstatic Showtime Premiere has come on board to broadcast “The Tunnel” simultaneously to our DVD and online release. A very bold move and a courageous strategy yet it means we can continue to expand the audience of the film – we’re potentially set to reach massive numbers through the support of our partners who are believing in “The Tunnel” and our not so traditional approach”.

The movie first attracted worldwide attention for its unconventional crowd-funding and release model. Distracted Media’s Australian producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey raised the film’s budget of $135,000 by selling each frame for $1 and opting to release the film via controversial internet piracy networks.

“The Tunnel” will have its worldwide Popcorn Taxi premiere the same night – hours before the Showtime Premiere broadcast – at Event Cinemas – Westfield – 500 Oxford St, Bondi Junction from 7pm. The Popcorn Taxi event will also feature an exclusive Q&A session with Enzo Tedeschi, Julian Harvey, Carlo Ledesma and special guest, Andrew Denton of Zapruder’s other films.

It will premiere at May 18 2011 at 10.35pm.

5 Responses

  1. Looks like they’re skipping things like iTunes and ctachup sites (eg. iView,iTunes, Hulu, Foxtel Download) and taking the bold step using torrents-for a good and legal use.

  2. great to see this getting some more publicity, thanks david.
    looking forward to this.
    hopefully it opens some eyes to what you can do with the power of the internet.
    browny

  3. Wouldn’t waste your time watching it or you might be sorely disappointed but then again thats just mine a number of others opinions! Just look @ the trailer & you’ve basically just seen the whole movie. No real suspense, just a low budget extended news style story. Not sure what all the fuss is about? Huge risk for those companies invested in it. Then again, it never was a money making venture right that is until ‘success’ hits and like all the others they’ll be after the mighty dollar not to mention fame etc. Hmmm what was that quote that went something like “the original reason we got into this was to tell stories”. Bet thats all changed now. The audience will have to reserve judgement on the rest.

  4. That’s interesting to see Australia willl air the Tunnel and release it by bittorrent (a legal use) first before it comes to streaming services like Hulu and Netflix in the US.

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