The collaboration between the web giant and the entertainment giant is called Amazon Studios. It’s an arrangement designed to find new talent at minimal cost:
[F]ilmmakers and writers around the world are invited beginning immediately to upload feature-length films and screenplays to the site, which triggers an 18-month option on the material. Each month starting in January, based on community feedback, two scripts and one test film will be designated the best of the bunch and awarded cash grants – $20,000 for each screenplay and $100,000 for the film.
At the end of next year, one screenplay and one film submitted by Dec. 31, 2011, will be chosen as the annual winners. That script will nab a $100,000 prize and the film a $1 million prize.
Warner Bros. will get the first shot at any of the Amazon Studios winners. The public voting will be edged along by an industry panel of judges who will help determine the commercial viability of submitted projects.
Amazon.com Brings Moviemaking to the Masses With Amazon Studios Launch [HR]