First full-length film shot on smartphone

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- San Francisco radio personality Hooman Khalili says he has shot the first feature-length film on a smartphone to be released in a theater.

Starring Gena Rowlands, "Olive" is set for release in Los Angeles next week. The movie was made for less than $500,000, using a Nokia N8 cellphone, with a high-resolution camera adapted with a 35mm lens to give added depth of field, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported.

"Technology is moving so quickly and cellphones are really going to be the thing that does everything eventually," Khalili told the newspaper. "They already do so much, and in January 2010 I came up with this idea and I saw there was nothing out there that existed. This is groundbreaking technology. You know someone is gonna be first, and there's something special about being first. And, yeah, our lens might be big and clunky, but this is how first generations of new technology are."

Rowlands, 81, is the wife of late independent filmmaker John Cassavetes. She is best known for her work in the film "A Woman Under The Influence. "

"I sent her the script, and she said to me: 'I read six scripts a week and I maybe do one movie a year. This script is so good, (but) I need you to convince me to do this movie.' So I sat there, and for an hour-and-a-half I poured my heart out to her. She did it, not for the money. She (is) an independent spirit, and she liked the fact that it was the first cellphone movie," the Telegraph quoted Khalili as saying.