Interactive Cinema has been promising to break through for more than a decade, but Hollywood has yet to calculate how to make interactive films and what to do with them once they're made (like, you know, to make money and that sort of thing).

Last week, though, I took a look at the interactive YouTube trailer for David N. Donihue's interactive hipster break up saga 'The Weathered Underground', and I saw a glimmer of how interactive story might be able to resonate, if still just within the niche willing to experiment.

Like the film, the trailer allows viewers to decide what happens next by clicking on different comic book style boxes, using annotations that are common to menu design. This alone is nothing new, but in the case of The Weathered Underground it provides a preview of what it will actually be like to make choices for the live action characters in the full release - something that can take getting used to.

Of course, it also provides audiences with the typical and necessary peak into the style and tone of the film (like most indies, this one seems quirky, strange, and struggling slightly for production value - although its comic book aesthetic, easy-on-the-eyes acting from Michael Ciriaco and Brea Grant [Daphne from NBC's Heroes], and a live performance by underground indie rockers The Lashes are sure to prop it up nicely).

The reason this promotion is particularly noteworthy is that it's not an interactive gimmick like those you see with traditional box office ... this is very close to being an actual product sample, and the distribution for the end product is conducive to the interactivity, with Indican Pictures making it available on DVD, iPod and iPhone at the end of January.

With a film that supposedly has hundreds of choices and over four and a half hours of live action content, device based consumption will likely be key to positive reviews, and maybe even a profit (just ask Silk Tricky ... read 'Interactive Film 'The Outbreak' Punished by Bandwidth Costs, YouTube Still Best Bet').