GUS VAN SANT - VAN SANT'S MYSPACE MOVIE

GUS VAN SANT hired almost the entire cast of his new movie PARANOID PARK on social networking website MySpace. The film adaptation of a Blake Nelson novel follows the story of a 16-year-old skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Instead of taking on experienced young actors, Van Sant chose to pluck most of the cast from the world wide web. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival - where the movie is being launched - Van Sant says, "I think this is how all the casting agencies would go about casting high schoolers, especially now when MySpace is so prevalent. We were like the others, just trying to figure out ways to get the word out to non professional people to play in the film."