Cinema Now, the US based movie download site, is in the news today. Saul Hansell, of The New York Times, has spoken to Curt Marvis, the site’s chief executive. While Saul’s article projects Cinema Now as a mainstream entertainer, this may not be the case.

The company are working alongside an elite group of Hollywood studios, such as Disney, MGM and Lions Gate. A payment of $99.95 gives the customer one years access to over 1000 movie titles.

The initial selection of featured movies are not promising, with a clear emphasis upon the erotic and the bizarre. The site’s content is seperated into sections such as Drama, Independent and Import. However, a large number of the films are merely about prostitutes. While the NYT did interview Curt Marvis, it is not clear whether they actually looked at the site. Curt recounts to the NYT how he recently watched a Cinema Now movie with his family after dinner. I would like to know which movie he watched? Perhaps it was Peter Rottentail, a film based upon a man who is “part man, part rabbit and all evil.”

Saul Hansell’s article does address relevant technical issues. It can take up to three hours to successfully burn and compress a movie. However, there may be a disparity between the site Saul describes and the site that actually exists.