The other day, I told you how Landmark Theaters planned on opening up a giant multiplex in Los Angeles, catering only to independent film. When completed, The Landmark Film Center will become the country's largest independent film multiplex: 12 auditoriums. Three-stories tall. Stadium seating. The works.

In New York City, we're lucky to have a number of theaters that house only independent film. However, the surrounding suburbs have nothing. Most cities across the country are lucky to have one, maybe two theaters committed to showing independent film. And some of the ones I've been in were old, with seats so uncomfortable you couldn't help but feel antsy a half-hour into the film. So, is Landmark on the right track here?

When I first wrote about the new Landmark theater, one commenter felt a move like this was more about money then reaching out to the community. But isn't that a good thing? A more attractive theater may help a smaller film earn more at the box office. A more attractive theater may command the attention of a community who aren't as aware of independent film as, say, Los Angeles, New York and Austin. (Yes, I had to include Austin -- they do it up nice out there.) I know what you're thinking: "But dude, the theater in question is in Los Angeles. I'm in Montana, what the hell do I get out of this?" Well, potentially, an independent film multiplex of your own.

So, I ask you: Is a big, comfortable multiplex the answer to getting more people involved in independent film? Or, with its tremendous commercial appeal, does the multiplex go against everything independent film stands for in the first place?

Odds and ends from Thursday:

• After finally admitting the only way he can bring in box office numbers is if everyone except him in the film is dead, Wesley Snipes signed on to play the lead role in Gallowalker, to be directed by Andrew Goth. Pic follows the mysterious gunman (and son of a nun) Kaos. After a curse is placed on him making it so his victims rise from the dead, Kaos must fend off a ton of these creatures if he wants to survive. Shooting is scheduled to begin In South Africa ... after people finally stop slipping in Blade references. Like me.
• Intrepid Pictures have picked up Dave Kalstein's novel Prodigy, with plans to have the author adapt it for the big screen. The sci-fi thriller, which will have a budget of around $20 million, tells of a prep school in the near future which trains its students to be geniuses by giving them drugs. Um, sweet! However, things take a turn for the worse when a bunch of the school's alumni turn up dead, thus forcing an impoverished valedictorian to solve this mystery.
• Landmark Theaters plan to open the largest independent film multiplex in the country next June in Los Angeles. The Landmark Film Center, to be located at Westside Pavillion, will be three-stories tall and feature 12 auditoriums, all with stadium seating and the latest in film and digital technology. There's also plans being discussed to use the theater to help train film students, as well as to screen works from emerging artists. Damn you Los Angeles! I want me one of those! Well, seeing as I live only a few blocks away from Landmark's Sunshine Theater here in NYC, I can't really complain. It rocks. However, I do feel like more of these should crop up throughout the country. We need it. They need it. Independent filmmakers need it. Lets get something going here, shall we?

Despite the fact that over 70 million homes receive his HDNet channel, Mark Cuban is still not making any money on his HD dream. Part of the problem (I'm not going to get into how many/few homes have HD TVs and receivers) is that some major cable companies -- including Comcast -- still refuse to carry either HDNet or its sister channel, HDNet Movies. In fact, a couple of years ago, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner collectively created an HD channel of their own called INHD, which they conceived as "a Cuban-killer." (He's still here. As is HDNet.)

Because of Cuban's feud with Comcast, as Karina mentioned in her column, there were rumblings that his Landmark Theaters, the biggest independent chain in the country, might refuse to show films that were part of distributor IFC Films' day/date release deal with Comcast. No official, public statements were made, however, so things continued as normal, and Caveh Zahedi's I Am a Sex Addict (part of the day/date deal) was scheduled to open at a Landmark theater in Berkeley on Friday, April 7. Then, yesterday, Zahedi heard from IFC that the film had been pulled by the theater because of Cuban's beef with Comcast. Not surprisingly, Zahedi was upset, and (quite reasonably, it would seem) blamed Cuban for the affair. According to Cuban's comment on the above post (scroll down the page a little, and you'll find it), however, IFC knew the film would not be screened at any Landmark theaters and schedule it anyway. Hmm.

No matter who's to blame, the fact is that a little indie film is caught up in something much, much bigger than it is. Can you even imagine how frustrating this must be for the filmmakers who, after IFC's deal with Comcast, were thrilled at the prospect of (relatively) wide distribution for the babies, only to run into this roadblock? Man alive, what a nightmare.

A Landmark Business, moderated by indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez, brought together representatives from all aspects of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's vertically integrated filmmaking factory, now called Wagner/Cuban Companies: Ted Mundorff, film buyer for Landmark Theaters; Tom Quinn, acquisition exec for Magnolia Pictures; Eammon Bowles, President of Magnolia; Elizabeth Glass, buyer for HD Net and HDNet Movies; Bill Banowsky, head of the new distribution initiative, Truly Indie; and Wagner himself, who easily stole the show by spouting his party's platform. Wagner's rhetoric was probably pre-packaged but undeniably convincing nonetheless.

Wagner/Cuban's various distribution revolutions were the order of the day. In all the hype surrounding the conglomerate's groundbreaking day/date strategy, their equally ballsy Truly Indie program has been somewhat overlooked. Banowsky described it as a "producer empowered distribution alternative." The concept came from the exhibition sector: Landmark shows a couple hundred films on its 300 screens a year, but half of its profits come from about 20 titles. In fact, the bottom 50-70 films, as Banowsky explained it, actually lose money for the chain. So the various sectors of the company got together and came up with Truly Indie, which essentially allows producers to pay a single fee to rent space at a Landmark Theater, and simultaneously hire Truly Indie to market and promote their film. It's sort of a second (last?) chance, for filmmakers who, say,  come off the festival circuit without a viable theatrical option. Truly Indie will allow such filmmakers to buy themselves a brief theatrical run, and still have the opportunity to cash in on the DVD rights. Wagner elaborates on the mission:

"We should be listening to the voice of independent cinema. I'd go to fests like this one [and hear filmmakers say], "I'm shut out of the system!" So what we're trying to do is open up the system. If you believe in your product, you should have a chance to release it."

The conversation soon, predictably, turned to day/date, and the company men are, rightfully, defensive. Here's where the Wagner quips really start to heat up. Some excerpts after the jump.

It's cold and rainy here in blustery Seattle, so why not go catch a movie? Here's a roundup of some of the film offerings around the Emerald City:

FREE MOVIES IN SEATTLE! 

Sure, you can listen to your fave radio station to find out about those nifty free preview screenings.  But if you're really a movie buff, you might want to check out Janet's Film Club at Janet Wainwright PR. They'll send you passes to get in free to lots of preview screenings! The only catch? Use 'em or lose 'em.

UW Film Club 

Japenese Film Series - Supermarket Woman (1996, Itami Juzo). Japanese comedy about a woman (Miyamoto Nobuko) hired to remake a small grocery store to compete against a large chain. Thursday, March 9 @ 7:30PM, UW Savery 239

A Moveable Feast  - Check out a rough cut of this film, by a former UW student. And it's free! At the Ethnic Cultural Center, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE.

Seattle Jewish Film Festival March 5-19 - This year marks the 11th year of the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, and they have a fantastic lineup. This year's fest runs at three venues: Seattle's Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), AMC Pacific Place, and Majestic Bay Theaters in Ballard. The festival really kicks into high gear this week, with an interesting lineup of films:

March 11 - The opening night film is Live and Become, which you can have with dessert at the 7PM showing (for passholders special ticket holders only), or without at 9:50PM. The film, which won the audience award at the 2005 Berlinale, tells the story of a young Ethiopian boy in the 1980s whose mother places him with a group of Ethiopian Jewish refugees to save him from the famine. As he grows from a boy into a man under his assumed identity, the lie under which he has lived begins to take its toll.

Check out the full lineup to see when other films are playing.