The social and networking website MySpace, in partnership with Film4 and Vertigo Films, today announced that Vito Rocco, an amateur director from Islington in London, has won the online election to direct the £1million MyMovie Mashup film project.

Rocco will direct Faintheart by David Lemon, described as a “comedy about the lives of a group of people who re-enact Viking battles as a hobby,” which will then be screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, as well as enjoying a full theatrical release in the UK.

The concept of the Mashup project is that it will Rocco's film worked on democratically by users of MySpace over the internet in what MySpace is referring to as “the world’s first user-generated feature film”.

Users will have input into every aspect of the film’s production, from casting by webcam to editing forums for the film’s trailer and the final choice of the film’s name.

Rocco’s submission to the judging panel was Goodbye, Cruel World, a dark comedy about a bullied schoolboy and his relationship with an elderly man. It received widespread acclaim online and was downloaded over 15,000 times by visitors to MySpace.

The next stage of the Mashup project is an online, interactive script discussion. Parts of the script will be posted on MySpace and visitors will be encouraged to log on and post ideas and dialogue suggestions to a user forum.

Principal photography on Faintheart is scheduled to begin in October 2007.

MySpace is by far the world’s largest web community, with 180 million users worldwide, and more than 10 million in the UK.

For more information and to take part, go to www.myspace.com/mymoviemashup

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