Contrarian media mogul Mark Cuban plans to air new movies produced by his company Magnolia Pictures on TV in advance of their theatrical release.

Cuban, who heads HDNet Movies, is betting that early screenings on his new Ultra Video on Demand service for cable subscribers will build buzz for Magnolia's art-house movies that will boost, rather than cannibalize, box office receipts.

The plan, announced Tuesday by Cuban (right) at a Television Critics Association gathering in Beverly Hills, will reverse the traditional trickle-down distribution pattern starting July 18 when Brian Cox's Red airs. The drama opens in theaters Aug. 8.

Wired.com checked in with Cuban, who also runs the Landmark Theatres chain, to learn more about the TV-first/movie-theaters-later experiment.

Wired.com: Are you concerned that people might not see a film in a theater if you make it available in advance on TV?

Mark Cuban: Not at all. Remember, in sports every game is on TV. An arena is a completely different experience than TV. The same applies to seeing movies. Theatrical is a completely different, social experience. Showing the movies pre-theatrical [release] builds word of mouth for the theatrical release.

Wired.com: Magnolia Pictures releases like the Demi Moore thriller *Flawless *and Vera Farmiga's Quid Pro Quo are precisely the kind of indie films that have struggled at the box office over the past few months. Warner Independent, Picturehouse and

Paramount Vantage have shut down. Do you see the Ultra Video on Demand model as something that could revive prospects for art-house movies?

Cuban: This is absolutely the key to keeping indie projects alive and vital. The marketing and revenue support of HDNet's Ultra VOD

solves the chicken-and-egg problem of [print and advertising spending] and theatrical box office [sales].

Wired.com: The Motion Picture Association of America is asking the FCC to waive limits on use of what it calls "selective output controls" that disable parts of the TV set. The plan is to enable studios to show pay-per-view movies at the same time as the films open in theaters. Your companies don't belong to the MPAA, so how does your approach differ?

Cuban: We would never add the copy protection to our movies. I don't care what the MPAA does.

Wired.com: Do you think Hollywood will follow suit to the point where it'll be commonplace for people to have a choice to watch new movies either on TV or in movie theaters the same weekend?

__Cuban: __No chance, because Landmark is the only national theater chain that will support HDNet's Ultra Sneak Previews. The big media companies aren't going to risk getting the [4,000] screen releases in place.

Photo: kk+/Flickr