Paulo Coelho, MySpace in Movie Collaboration
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 6/10/2008 12:05:00 PM
Bestselling author Paulo Coelho has teamed with MySpace to create his first feature film, The Experimental Witch. Using the ‘mash-up’ video concept, Coelho will transform his most recent book, The Witch of Portobello, which HarperCollins published last year, into a feature film using original videos and music created and submitted by MySpace users. Coelho will select up to 15 videos and 16 songs to be included in the final film. Coelho will own the film, and distribution of the final product has not yet been set.
The competition invites filmmakers to select one of the 15 main characters from The Witch of Portobello and create a short film based on one of the book’s narratives and then post their submission on MySpaceTV and on Paulo Coelho’s MySpace profile. For the film’s soundtrack, musicians can submit entries by uploading songs onto their own MySpace page and onto Coelho’s profile. Material may be submitted in any language, though any film not in English, Portuguese, Spanish or French should include subtitles.
On a conference call Tuesday morning, Coelho told reporters he is an avid MySpace user and has been connecting with his fans there for the past three years. “I was reluctant to allow my books to be transformed into movies because as readers read my books, they create the movie in their heads. Anytime they see a book adapted to a film they have the sensation of disrespect. I decided the movie of the book takes place in the head of the reader, so why not ask the reader to make the movie?”
Filmmakers and musicians may submit entries between June 16 and July 25; winners will be announced August 24. Winners will enjoy significant publicity, and their work will be featured across MySpace worldwide including the homepage, MySpaceTV and an extensive banner campaign.
Chapters from The Witch of Portobello will be available for entrants to download. Coelho said HarperCollins is not involved in the project, although both the publisher and MySpace are owned by News Corp.
