The Blurst of Times

Can a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters reproduce the works of William Shakespeare? Probably not without defecating on said typewriters. But can a thousand science fiction fans at a thousand laptops produce a Syfy Original Movie? Thankfully, the answer is yes – and you too can be one of those monkeys, though defecating on your computer is not recommended.

Beginning this Friday, the Syfy channel is giving IGN readers a chance to help make their next original film. The project, dubbed B Movie Mogul, launches with web users voting on one of three starting points for the film: a Bermuda triangle story, a Roswell story, or a Mayan Apocalypse story. After the winning vote is announced, users will be involved in designing the creatures, writing the dialogue, choosing the wardrobe, and even deciding how some characters might meet a grisly end.

How this all unfolds might be more interesting than the resulting movie. Hopefully, Syfy executives will hire an intrepid young filmmaker to document the process (seriously, Syfy, hire me). After all, online buzz building up to Snakes on a Plane was more fun than Snakes on a Plane itself. Syfy is clearly trying to cash in on that same sort of enthusiasm – and why not? In the best-case scenario, we get a great movie. Worse case? A cautionary tale. Log onto IGN and vote now.

http://tv.ign.com/articles/110/1101015p1.html