Madonna's Movie: Straight to iTunes?

Remember Madonna? Talented, cone-chested singer, somewhat less successful in the movie department? You may have heard (possibly from us) that she directed a movie called Filth and Wisdom that had its world premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. Kim Voynar reports that it was mostly positively received, while Anne Thompson at Variety says it was "badly reviewed." Either way, it's Madonna, and she's really famous -- and now it looks like her film might skip theaters and DVD and go straight to iTunes.

Variety is our source, and while their headline -- "Madonna puts 'Filth' up for download" -- makes it sound like it's a done deal, the subhead and the story make it clear that the download option is merely being considered. (Note to Variety: It's better if the headline conveys information that is a) true and b) found in the story. I'm just sayin'.)

The Material Girl tells the trade publication: "I've been speaking to iTunes about releasing it through them.... I want the most amount of people to see it as possible.... I don't like to do anything conventionally."

Ah, yes. It's not the lack of interest from potential distributors that has made Madonna consider releasing the film online; it's her desire to be unconventional.
Edward Burns' Purple Violets holds the distinction of being the first feature-length film to premiere on iTunes, back in November; as far as I can determine, Filth and Wisdom would be the second. The question is, would people buy it? Apple isn't exactly forthcoming with the numbers on Purple Violets (they only cite stats when they're really impressive), and while it's safe to assume a film made by Madonna would do better than one made by Edward Burns, we still don't know how many people we're talking about here. A few thousand? How many people download movies from iTunes at all, let alone ones they don't know anything about? Would you pay $14.99 for it, sight unseen?