By Jenna Glatzer, visit her fantastic web site: Absolute Write

Barry Hutchison was taking film and media courses at Aberdeen College in Scotland. He was given an assignment: write a ten minute film script. Fortunately, Barry doesnt follow instructions very well. "It was just supposed to be a couple of scenes," he says. "I just kept going with it." The result? A comedy/horror (yes, I know, bizarre mix) feature film script called "Curse of the Bog Women."

The script is based on the adventures of Ingrid MacPherson, a former New York Times reporter who moves to a tiny town in Scotland to relax and work at a small local paper. While there, she notices an unpleasant trend: tourists are disappearing. Despite discouragement from her editor, she sets out to investigate, and discovers slimy, buxom women from the bogs on a killing spree. Unfortunately, her evidence keeps disappearing, and the only person in town who believes her is rapidly turning into something resembling an oak tree. Foul play? Definitely. But will she be able to prove it before the big international golf tournamentand with it, plenty of fresh tourist meatcomes to town?

Barry took his smart, offbeat little script and posted it at American Zoetrope, the website founded by Francis Coppola to encourage screenwriters to critique each others works and to promote the "cream of the crop" for Zoetropes review.

The script got tons of attention from other screenwriters at the site. It generated a lot of buzz on the message boardsand attracted Chris Bancel, a soon-to-be independent filmmaker in New York.

Chris fell in love with the script and decided he wanted to produce it, along with partner Anthony Santa-Croce, who has been involved with numerous movies-of-the-week and other film and television projects. "By doing this ourselves, we can maintain strong management control on production and ensure the best quality film on a low budget," he says, adding, "We do intend and expect to work with a major distributor during or after principal photography."

He quickly optioned the script and set out to learn all he could about what it would take to make this movie. Then he set up a website, www.glenlachart.co.uk, to attract investors and audiences. Thats when things got really interesting.

The site took on a life all its own, overflowing with information about the films setting: Glen Lachart, a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands. Visitors could log on to learn how to speak in "Highland slang," to read about the adventures of the Spud O Christ (Glen Lachart resident Hector Young found this uncanny image of Jesus inside a potato never mind that it appears to be drawn on with a black marker), submit photos for the Girls of Glen Lachart Y2K+1 Calendar, read the town gossip and bizarre happenings in the Star newspaper ("dependable-reliable-true!"), and more.

Soon, the site had developed a devoted following. Visitors from all over the world came and posted in the forums, offering marital advice to the towns bickering couple (who enjoyed posting insulting and compromising photos of each other on the message board), commenting on the news, or offering comfort and advice when the Spud O Christ was horrendously kidnapped. Sites like Yahoo Internet Life picked up on it, making it a "Weird Site Of The Week." Barrys Zoetrope fans passed along the link and watched in amusement as their peer ascended into cyber-stardom.

Last week, the website caused a media stir in Scotland because site visitors began calling the Highland Tourism Board, seeking accommodations in Glen Lachart. "Im not surprised," says Barry. "People have sent the strangest e-mails. Fanatics asking for celestial prophesies from the Spud, or trying to track their Glen Lachart descendants." Of course, Barrys not complainingweirdoes see movies, too. He just hopes the websites popularity will be reflected in the box office when this film is released.

Its scheduled to be shot later this year near Barrys hometown in the Highlands, and both Chris and Barry are very excited about the notion of making this film without asking Hollywoods permission. Both hope this will be the start of a long and prosperous career in independent film.

Oh, and me? I was one of those card-carrying fans of Barrys at Zoetrope. Nowadays, Im working as the publicity director for the films website (www.glenlachart.co.uk). Oh, did I mention that link already? Boy, am I doing a good job, or what?!

(Very subliminal message: Youre done reading this article. Now click that link.)