A while ago I wrote about Kevin Smith creating an audio commentary for Clerks II that you could download into your MP3 players and take into the cinema to watch alongside the big screen movie. Sounds cool doesn't it? Well the bad news is that it's not happening anymore.

The news comes from newsaskew.com through Jo Blo and tells us whose to blame. According to newsaskew it's not Smith's fault or the Studio. It's the cinemas.

Apparently they thought that those customers paying to watch the film normally might get irritated by those people listening to the audio commentary and laughing at different parts.

Now I get that, people are irritating enough in the cinema without hearing them react to a different movie. However there was a simple way out of this, and I can't believe they didn't think of this. Supply the audio of the film in MP3 format for free and sell the MP3 audio commentary. Then have special screenings where everyone comes with a player and watches the film with their chosen commentary. How easy is that? Consider the idea copyrighted by Filmstalker!

However seems like they haven't thought this through that thoroughly, or I'm guessing approached cinemas outside their front door. I know of a few cinemas here that would love that idea. Perhaps there's more to it than simply annoying other audience members?