As HBO has slowed production on original movies the company has begun shelling out decent sized money for indie films.

In a story from Variety, the company that delivered Sex and the City and The Sopranos (and reaped some hefty financial rewards with their DVD releases), has bought such films as Rob Schneider's directorial debut Big Stan and The OH in Ohio starring Parker Posey and Danny Devito.

HBO is spending $500,000 to $2 million to purchase these films.

HBO's Henry McGee sees this as a reversion back to how things were for the cable station up until the late 1990s. It was then that they began to create their own content and concentrated less on acquisitions.

Sadly, recent shows like Carnivale and Deadwood have not been as popular with viewers.

As a result of the latter shows not being as popular, some think HBO is afraid they aren't going to perform as well on DVD. McGee discounts this claim and uses Deadwood as an example of a show that has sold quite well for them.

Other films HBO has picked up are Mini's First Time with Luke Wilson and Alec Baldwin and Red Dust with Hilary Swank.

Mini's First Time was released July 14th, 2006 and stars Alec Baldwin, Nikki Reed, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jeff Goldblum, Luke Wilson, Svetlana Metkina, Sprague Grayden, Artie Baxter. The film is directed by Nick Guthe.