28/03/2013 - The film Tricked, made by Verhoeven and Dutch audiences, will be released this week

A unique project, the Dutch film Tricked [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will finally be released in the Netherlands today (MArch 28).

The film was directed by one of the most famous of Dutch directors, Paul Verhoeven (Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Total Recall, Basic Instinct) but he didn’t direct it alone. As part of the user-generated Entertainment Experience, some 35,000 users participated in the project.

Tricked started with the first of eight parts of a feature script that was written by screenwriter Kim van Kooten (The Family Way, Love Is All). The subsequent seven parts were influenced through audience participation, and both Verhoeven and several crews of non-professional filmmakers participated in filming the remaining parts, which all add up to one film (or in reality two features, one entirely directed by Verhoeven and one made by the “community,” using the same screenplays except for the endings, which are different).

The entire process was followed by broadcaster Veronica; the Entertainment Experience itself was produced by FCCE.

The main story focuses on Remco (Peter Blok), a womanizer who works in real estate whose life takes an unexpected turn during his 50th birthday party, thrown by his wife (singer-actress Ricky Koole). There are troubles at work and in his private life on the horizon.

The cast also includes Gaite Jansen, Robert de Hoog, Carolien Spoor and Sallie Harmsen, all professional actors.

Like the film, which had its international premiere at the Rome Film Festival last November, the actual release was organised not only through official distributor Amstel Film Distributie but also through influence of the audience, who could sell tickets for possible screenings via the website wewantcinema.com, with the location selling the most tickets finally earning the red-carpet premiere of the film.

That the possibilities of new technologies and film are a hot topic in the Netherlands will again be confirmed next week, when the feature APP [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will be released, a thriller that offers mobile phone users in the cinema a “second screen experience” if they download an app that’s synchronised with the film.