One of my absolute most favorite things in the world is a good old, cheesy B-movie. These aren’t your big-name movies with superstar Hollywood types but those cheap, straight-to-video movies featuring past-their-prime TV stars trying to make ends meet, nobody directors and writers, and dodgy special effects. These flicks, like Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus, are a Syfy staple, as the network makes dozens of them every year to help fill their weekend programming slots with original content; they’re cheap and effective, as well as popular with viewers. Now, Syfy is letting viewers make the next Syfy Original Picture!
Syfy is partnering with IGN to launch the site B Movie Mogul, which will allow fans to pick what Syfy movie ideas they want to see made into films over the next 15 months! Not only will fans pick the setting, they’ll also determine title, creatures, wardrobe, dialogue, character deaths, promotional taglines, and even get to pitch script ideas straight to the network! It goes without saying that I love this idea, as a fan of both B movies and of democracy.
“We constantly have fans e-mailing with compliments, complaints and questions about our movies, and this is a way of involving the fans in a new way,” said Thomas Vitale, executive VP of programming and original movies. “This is where entertainment is going and just the start of many more things of this nature for Syfy.”
Tags: B Movie Mogul, B-movies, Syfy, straight-to-television movies, unusual movies, marketing ideas, build-your-own B-movie, Syfy to allow viewers to make a movie, IGN, Thomas Vitale, viewers to vote on movie ideas, Syfy original pictures