Winning Science Fiction Script to be turned into Short Film by Dubai International Film Festival, Attitude Enterprises and Middle East Film and Comic Con

Dubai, 23 October 2013: The summer of 2013 saw Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), Attitude Enterprises and the Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC) team up to launch a competition which gave budding filmmakers an opportunity to showcase the regions creative talent by writing a treatment or script based on an original idea within the sci-fi or superhero genre. The competition gained a fantastic response with over 40 entries and the winning script, Serenity Now is now in pre-production.

The sci-fi concept written by Alastair Newton Brown, a resident of Dubai, was one of many short listed and sent to well known Hollywood screenwriter Max Landis, writer of the smash hit ‘Chronicle' and the upcoming Frankenstein project starring Harry Potter lead, Daniel Radcliffe who then selected the winner.

“Serenity Now is pretty slick” commented Max Landis upon reading the script, “…and I've been really impressed with the level of creativity in the competition.”

The short film, being produced locally by Attitude, a leading media production studio, was inspired by a vivid memory of Brown's university days where he encountered a "futurist". “That idea revolves around the premise that in the future, man and machine would co-evolve in such a way that a new species would emerge. This new species would want absolute power over human beings explained Brown. With knowledge comes power, and so that's the big commodity that all the parties in the story are after.”

The Middle East Film and Comic Con, the region's biggest pop culture festival, now heading towards its third year, has endeavoured to spearhead the growth of the creative community in the region with a number of incentives and programs whether in the comic book, animation or film genre and the team guarantee even more to come.

“We've only just scratched the surface of amazing talent in the region” commented Ben Caddy General Manager of ExtraCake, organisers of the Middle East Film and Comic Con. “We've had lots of exciting success stories coming out of the MEFCC where Middle East based talent have already started to realise their potential. We hope this competition is another step in that direction for regional filmmakers and we'll be entering the finished piece into numerous awards programs and festivals.”

Shivani Pandya, the Managing Director of DIFF which this December celebrates its 10th edition added; “The level of creativity in the entries to this competition just shows the talent bubbling under the surface in this region. We're really pleased to work with partners like MEFCC to bring some of these ideas to life.”

Casting and pre-production is already underway for the film but interested parties should contact Attitude at www.attitude.ae if they want to get involved.