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Screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski has been on a roll lately following his hit film, The Shallows, which featured Blake Lively vs shark and made a killing at the box office. And now we have word that Lionsgate is in final negotiations to acquire his vampire spec script The French Quarter Will Not Be Spared. As you might imagine at this point in time, the details regarding the plot of the screenplay are being kept under tight wraps. But that said, we do know that the film is a new take on the vampire genre set in New Orleans, get this, during hurricane Katrina. Interesting.

More interesting still is that the powers that be behind the scenes of this new vampire-during-hurricane flick is that the goal of the production is to make a "visceral and socially relevant horror film" in the vein of John Krasinski's A Quiet Place and/or writer-director Jordan Peele's Get Out.

When a treasure hunter discovers long-lost Nazi gold, he’s suddenly in much deeper than he expected – running for his life across Europe, unraveling secrets and lies with a beautiful ally who has some secrets of her own.

This is the story of The Alchemist Agenda, written by Marty Weiss first as a screenplay, and now as a novel. It was one of the first projects added to the Amazon Studios Movie Development Slate.

We asked Marty, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, about the evolution of his story, writing for the page instead of the screen and what his Amazon Studios experience has been like.

Where did you get the idea for The Alchemist Agenda?

Marty: I was working on the music for a film in Prague, had a lot of downtime to roam around the historic sites, and came across alchemy symbols and references in several places. Even...

Amazon.com's movie studio promised to throw the development process open to the masses. One year on, how has the crowdsourced screenplay caught on?

There is something wrong with modern Hollywood – we can agree on that. Too many remakes and sequels and prequels; far too many computer game and toy adaptations. Everyone thinks the profit-focused, top-down system is too busy chasing "pre-branded content" to find new talent, and too risk-averse to take a chance on original stories. Industry insiders complain as much as moviegoers, but viable alternatives are thin on the ground. Until a year ago.

In November last year, Amazon.com, the online book merchants turned internet visionaries, announced the launch of a new kind of movie studio. Their idea was to throw open the gates to all comers, regardless of geographic location, industry connections or – some would say – talent. The goal, according to their own website is: "To...

One is a commercial director. The other is simply a movie fan from Georgia. Together they've snagged the top honors in newly launched Amazon Studios' first Best Script contest. The $20,000 awards were handed out on Thursday to “The Alchemist Agenda” by Marty Weiss of Los Angeles and “Villain,” by Richard Stern of Roswell, Georgia. "I think any of the finalists and the winners would more than hold their own in any script bag going home for the weekend," Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, told TheWrap. The winners were chosen from the more than...

Amazon Studios chief Roy Price is thrilled with the first phase of his radical online movie studio experiment. So many submissions came in the first month, more than 2500, that he opened up a December script contest and his panel of judges has picked the first two winners: Richard Stern for action comedy Villain, about a bad guy who decides to switch sides, which also earned the most responses online, and Marty Weiss of the rollicking international mystery adventure The Alchemist Agenda. "It's Fool's Gold meets the Da Vinci Code," says Price. "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt should definitely check this one out." Both winners will collect a $20,000 prize and can move on to the next phase of the Amazon Studios competition: test shorts ...

Genius Products announced today that Haylie Duff's fight for your life terror vehicle Backwoods will be hitting DVD on June 23rd. We know you've been waiting for it! Just hang in there!

Synopsis

"A group of seven co-workers venture into the woods on a corporate retreat to test their survival skills and paint-ball marksmanship. When the game starts the next morning, the group finds that their training is more than a paint-ball game; it’s a fight for survival in a hostile ground whose inhabitants are maniacal lunatics!"

Backwoods was produced by Albert T. Dickerson III and directed by Marty Weiss and is a production of Rhi Entertainment. Look for more on this title including cover art in the days to come.

- Uncle Creepy

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Haylie Duff stars as Lee, a strong professional woman, who finds herself in the fight of her life when Backwoods debuts on DVD June 23rd from Genius Products and Rhi Entertainment. Ryan Merriman ( Final Destination 3 ), Danny Nucci ( World Trade Center ) and Jonathan Chase also star as coworkers who test more than just their camping skills when a company retreat goes terribly wrong. Backwoods was produced by Albert T. Dickerson III and directed by Marty Weiss and is a production of Rhi Entertainment. Tony Roman and Traceigh Scottel were co-producers and Michael Moran co-executive produced.

• After long being announced as a theatrical title from the Yari Film Group, whose distribution arm recently filed for bankruptcy, the Sarah Michelle Gellar-starring supernatural film Possession is going straight to disc instead. Fox Home Entertainment will release May 12, and art and specs have recently appeared.

The movie will be presented on DVD and Blu-ray in anamorphic 2.40:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, accompanied by:

• Making-of featurette • Four deleted and alternate scenes • Alternate ending • Theatrical trailer

Retail price is $22.98 for the DVD, $29.99 for the Blu-ray. In the film, a remake of the Korean Jungdok (Addicted) directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist from a script by Queen Of The Damned’S Michael Petroni, Gellar plays a woman whose husband Ryan and ne’er-do-well brother-in-law Roman are involved in a horrible car crash. When Roman awakens, he seems to be possessed by Ryan’s spirit. Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace, Michael Landes,...