Movies: Yes, That's David Lynch

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It's not that Lynch couldn't get a distributor. "He has a great, twisted psyche that always gets some sort of primal response from people," says Eamonn Bowles, president of Magnolia Pictures, an indie company that "had some interest" in distributing Empire but never made the deal. It's that the do-it-yourself ethic that attracted Lynch to the Sony PD150 seemed suited to an experiment in distribution as well. Self-distribution is "very brave," says Dern. "But it doesn't make it easier. Nothing about this is traditional."

Lynch is embarking on an eight-city promotional road tour of the U.S. later this month. When he first started thinking about the costs of self-distribution, he was told of a $2.8 million Oscar publicity campaign for an actress in another current movie, recalls Dern. "He went insane," she says, beginning to imitate Lynch's clipped Midwestern accent. "'People are starving! That's disgusting. I could go stand on a street corner and talk about my actors!' As soon as I heard 'I could stand on a street corner,' I thought, Oh, no." Perhaps because there aren't actually any cows in Inland Empire, Dern didn't anticipate the bovine prop, however. "The Academy members love show business," explains Lynch. "And this is show business, being out with the cow."