An online casting call has gone out via Facebook today, offering anyone from anywhere in the world the chance to co-star alongside actors Topher Grace and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in The Beauty Inside. The film, part of a co-marketing campaign for Toshiba and Intel, marks the second time the two brands and their agency, Pereira O’Dell, have launched a global social film project--last year, it was the thriller The Inside Experience, directed by D.J. Caruso.
This time around, Drake Doremus, best known for Like Crazy, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the Sundance Film Festival last year, takes the reins of a romantic comedy that centers on a guy named Alex (Grace) who wakes up every day with a new face and body, complicating his romance with Leah (Winstead). “The story was exciting to me--the idea of waking up in somebody else’s skin every day but being the same person on the inside,” Doremus says. "That was some territory I was interested in exploring."
Alex uses his Toshiba Portégé Ultrabook to document his ever-changing appearance and how it affects his life throughout The Beauty Inside, which will roll out in installments on Facebook over the course of six weeks beginning on August 16, with the winners of the casting call appearing as Alex as he records his web diary.
Those who try out will be required to record themselves reading an audition script via an app provided on Facebook, and they will be able to ask their Facebook friends to "like" their video, which will increase the likelihood of it being chosen. (That said, Doremus will have the final say over who goes in the film.)
In between episodes of The Beauty Inside, viewers will be able to connect with Alex and get to know him even better through social networking. “The week in between each episode is going to be a very interactive week for the viewers. The goal is to really integrate and involve them and immerse them in the piece over the six weeks. We’re trying to do something that’s genuine, and we want to make this a global event that everybody can be a part of,” Doremus says, noting, “I’ve never done something like this before, so I’m really curious and excited to see what happens.”
The project has been a bit of a whirlwind for Doremus, who shot the film in Los Angeles in just six days. “We basically had to shoot an episode a day, and each episode is about five, six minutes long,” Doremus says. "There’s been no time to think, and the project has been really fun in that sense.”
– CHRISTINE CHAMPAGNE
