New Jackass Movie Debuts Online
December 14, 2007

The team behind Jackass, who barely even spend a dime to make the movies they make, have decided that spending money on marketing or even cutting prints of their new film is too much, so Jackass 2.5 will be released online before hitting DVD the day after Christmas. Jackass 2.5 is an hourlong feature that is mostly made up of deleted scenes from last year's Jackass 2 and it will debut on December 19th online, where it is being hosted by Blockbuster, before being released on DVD by Paramount a week later. Variety is calling the release of Jackass 2.5 the first major studio feature to debut online and noting that it will stream for free with ads initially. It's a stretch to call an hour of deleted scenes a "major studio feature," but we'll play along.

Variety notes that MTV has long promised to provide feature-length content for the internet and that they began planning this project 18 months ago. David Gale, the exec VP of new media and specialty film content for MTV Networks, told Variety, "This is the first major project that we're launching under that initiative. It's in the vein of 'Kill Bill' 1 and 2. After shooting 'Jackass Number 2,' we had more than one movie. So, we shot some new stuff (in September) and added some of that new content."

There will be a one-week exclusive window for Jackassworld.com, a new site that has been developed by MTV and Johnny Knoxville's Dickhouse Productions. This movie was never conceived as anything more than an internet project, according to Variety. Thomas Lesinski, the prexy of Paramount Digital Media, told them, "We've developed a distribution model that's never been done before. Our goal is to prove that there is an audience to watch content online."

For the first week, Blockbuster will have exclusive rental rights to the DVD and digital online rentals and then the DVD will hit other stores and sales outlets. Jackassworld.com will be "fully erect" by February 8th. We can't wait.

Like Jackass? Check out these other comedies, recently released on DVD - The Sarah Silverman Show, Flight of the Conchords, and Superbad.