By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A GEELONG West director’s vigilante thriller has suddenly become one of the most downloaded movie titles on pirate sites across the world.
Despite a limited cinema release in Australia and the US, Kelly Dolen’s John Doe: Vigilante was pirated up to a million times from the major torrent sites last weekend.
Leading site TorrentReactor listed the film at five in its list of most-pirated movies, behind Big Hero 6, Birdman, Horrible Bosses 2 and Wild Card.
The response followed the posting of the US version of the DVD onto torrent sites last Friday.
“It just went gangbusters,” Mr Dolen said.
The response was bitter-sweet for the director, with the popularity of his work gratifying but without any financial reward because it was pirated.
“The film industry is going through a major shift and this is one of the reasons why,“ Mr Dolen said.
“With so many different distribution platforms available now, the industry is very different from what it used to be and the public is asserting its view.
“But over the weekend the film’s IMDB ranking rose to 931 overall and the trailer had around 250,000 hits.“
The independently-financed feature stars Battlestar Galactica’s Jamie Bamber and AACTA winner Lachy Hulme, who starred in Power Games, Offspring and Killer Elite.
Critiqued as the best Australian film since Romper Stomper, the film broaches the prickly subject of taking the law into one’s own hands.
The polarising movie tells the story of John Doe, a man accused of being a brutal vigilante serial killer – but only of repeat offenders who “deserved to die“.
As his trial verdict approaches, an investigative journalist probes the accused to discover the motive and reasoning behind his actions.
Mr Dolen said John Doe: Vigilante was his third feature film but he was already in pre-production for his next, Bound, which he planned to film in Geelong.
The exclusive story of the next big thing in Geelong’s fledgling film industry features in the next issue of Geelong Coast magazine (GC), out early next month.
Geelong comedian’s foody show an online hit, page 19
