Tonight at 9pm ET, YouTube will be holding a viewing party for the film "Taxi Driver" in the YouTube Screening Room. What makes this viewing party different? Live Twitter updates will be integrated directly into it.
YouTube has tested Twitter integration with other videos, but this is the first time that Twitter updates will actually be looped into a full-length film. Tweets will be displayed underneath the video player, just above video responses. YouTube is doing this in conjunction with Sony's Crackle.com YouTube Channel. All updates containing "@youtube" "@crackledotcom" or the hashtags "#taxidriver" or "#yttaxidriver" will be displayed.
Other companies have taken on the idea of creating virtual viewing parties (see Hulu's Facebook app) or integrating tweets with video content but this is a pretty new way to integrate tweeting directly with online video from a commercial content provider.
Sony signed on as a YouTube premium partner back in April and through its Crackle channel, has been offering up TV shows and movies -- mostly aimed at a more cult and niche audience. Crackle has been experimenting with releasing more well-known films on its channel for limited periods of time, and "Taxi Driver" was added last week.
For the uninitiated, "Taxi Driver" is Martin Scorsese's 1976 classic, starring Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and a young Jodie Foster. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and is considered one of the seminal films of the 1970s. It's also the movie where De Niro says, "You talkin' to me?" Note, the film, while fantastic, is rated R and very violent. Just keep that in mind before settling in!