Spike Lee to make mobile movie for Nokia

Thu Apr 24 2008, 15:51 PM

Film director Spike Lee and Nokia will create a user-generated short movie for mobile phones, which will premiere in Los Angeles this autumn, says the International Herald Tribune. Amateur film-makers will be asked to send in video clips, each a few minutes long, via their mobile phones. Users will vote on their favourite videos, after which Lee will pick three winners and edit their work to create the final three-act movie.

"Within five years, new movies will be made with devices like these," says Lee. Nokia believes that a quarter of its users will consume and create user-generated content by 2012, based on its survey of 9,000 customers last year.

This is not Nokia's first foray into movies. Since 2006, the Finnish phone maker has offered full mobile versions of Sony Pictures' 'Ghost Rider' and Paramount's 'Mission Impossible 3', which users could access on selected phones with special special memory cards. Other mobile manufacturers are also tying up with the film industry. Last year, Europe's GSM Association partnered with Sundance Institute to sponsor five mobile short films

Revenues from mobile media and entertainment (MME) services in the US - such as movies, music and games - could reach USD6.6bn by 2012, from USD3.1bn last year, Analysis Research has predicted. The research firm believes mobile TV and VoD will be the fastest-growing services, jointly accounting for 36% of MME revenue by 2012.