John August and Ryan Reynolds want to go to the movies with you

Last week I wrote a review of The Nines in which I singled out gay writer/director John August's originality and daring in bringing his cuckoo, reality-bending, self-referencing triptych to the screen. But he's gone and done me one further with his latest stunt, which might be the most genius incentive to see a film a second time that I've ever seen.

On his website, August has posted a live movie commentary for the film, recorded by both himself and lead actor Ryan Reynolds. The idea is that you download the file to your iPod or Zune or hamster-driven MP3 player of choice and play it (quietly, one would hope) while you watch the film in the theatre.

At first I thought, well, this is cute. Clever new media marketing idea, might be fun to try. And then something dawned on me: this is the closest I am ever going to get to having Ryan Reynolds whisper in my ear during a movie.

Seriously, the movie's a fun watch and I was planning on seeing it again, eventually, as it is incredibly complex and merits a second viewing. But now instead of waiting for DVD, I'm going to download this thing and try it out. Kudos to August for the idea (which he says he actually cribbed from Kevin Smith, who did something similar for Clerks II) and Reynolds for playing along ... popcorn's on me, fellas.