MySpace Members Choose Cast And Director For Film

Earlier this year – in spring, or Q2, to be more precise – the world witnessed the debut of MySpaceTV's first serial, called “Prom Queen,” which was broken into 90-second-episode snippets and ran for north of a month's time.

And just a week ago, the social network announced the launch of its second episodic production, “Roommates,” an ongoing, scripted, viewer-influenced drama occurring over the course of 45 weekdays.

Now, MySpace has made known its intentions to go even further into the realm of professionally-produced attractions. This time, it’s heading forward with plans to wander into the world of filmmaking. And it’s hired a select few (ten, to be exact) MySpace members (from the UK only) to be part of the cast.

Yes, that’s right, the cast. MySpace even went so far as to arrange for the site’s membership to select its movie’s director (Vito Rocco, who’s short film, submitted to the site, won 500,000 votes), and opened a poll for the choice of cast among a group which auditioned for roles. Those chosen, “which include a student and an aerospace engineer,” says the BBC, will “star alongside actors Paul Nicholls and Tim Healy.”

The premise of the film, titled “Faintheart,” is a romantic comedy. It is slated for a summer 2008 release.

Like past professionally-produced video-based creations which MySpace has piloted, Faintheart is being supported by outside studios (Film4 and Vertigo Films), so, if nothing else, the visual value of it will likely be half-decent at the least. MySpace expects to have users interested in the project to “contribute to the script,” in order that it continue exemplifying the practice of including public input in it’s creations, be they website related, or content-specific.

Back in February, when MySpace first publicized its search for participants for the venture, the company made it known that the production would have a 1m-pound budget. Roughly speaking, that should tell you what to expect of it come it’s debut mid-2008.