Xbox 360 Live to Distribute Low-Budget British Indie Comedy

LONDON – Comic book creator-turned-filmmaker Adam Hamdy's low-budget British comedy debut Pulp is being released via Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live subscriber platform.

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The film, about a struggling comic book publisher recruited by the cops to break a crime syndicate, will premiere on the platform for subscribers later this month.

By making his festival circuit movie available to buy or rent in standard or high definition on the service, it marks a departure for a movie bypassing the usual route to viewers via traditional distribution models involving theaters or DVDs.

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Download-to-own starts from $15 (£9.99) or rental at $5 (£3.49).

Hamdy told the BBC news website that he made the move to push Pulp onto the digital gaming platform because distribution options are becoming more limited for independent films as the market shrinks and competition for slots increases.

Microsoft said it will be distributing more films this way in the future.

Said Hamdy: "At the top end of the indie film business the U.K. is still pretty healthy, but it's the middle tier and the lower budget tier that's struggling. Where they would have been released straight to DVD, the opportunities for doing that have really declined."

His independent film does not boast "bankable stars" but has posted more than a million hits on YouTube for its trailer and has also unspooled during the Las Vegas Film Festival as well as the Just For Laughs Film Festival and was nominated for the discovery award at the London Comedy Film Festival 2012.