The British Film Institute, as part of its five-year "Film Forever" blitz to revitalize the UK movie industry, will digitize 10,000 titles from its massive vault of 450,000 film cans by 2017. The goal? To offer them on-demand.
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BFI says it will crowdsource which 10,000 titles will be digitized, and those films will then be made accessible on TV channels, a mobile app and a new video player dubbed BFIPlayer.
"Film Forever is founded on a renewed commitment to the future -- the future generation of audiences, the future generation of filmmakers and the opportunities presented by digital technologies," BFI CEO Amanda Nevill said in a statement. "We are investing where we think we can most make a difference."
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BFI's website allows people to see a sampling of its film archive.
More than $800 million, or roughly £500 million, is slated to be spent on Film Forever, which aside from the digitization project, includes investments in filmmaking, improving film education as well as growing audiences and overall excitement about film culture.
BONUS: Need Something to Watch Now? Try One of These Flicks
1. Beetlejuice
When it comes to comedy horror flicks, Beetlejuice is certainly one of the zaniest. It follows the Maitlands (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin), a recently deceased couple haunting a lovely New England home that belonged to them in life. When the obnoxious Deetz family purchases the house, the Maitlands try their best to scare them away. They bring in a supposed bio-exorcist named Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) as a last resort, but this mischievous ghoul just ends up causing even more trouble. Check out this movie on Amazon Instant Video or iTunes.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, MarinaRazumovskaya
This story originally published on Mashable here.