Reality-style British movie to become world’s first powered by a virtual currency

Reality-style British movie to become world’s first powered by a virtualcurrency

Comedian creates own crypto-currency 
to reward stars, fans and investors

• Award-winning Jason Attar shooting Powder’s Peckham in just 35 days

• ‘Kevcoin’ crypto-currency based on Bitcoin and will act as a profit share

• Real people discovered and featured during filming are given currency

A pioneering British movie, currently being filmed in South London, will become the world’s first to be powered by an online ‘crypto-currency’.

The producers of Powder’s Peckham are offering a 25% profit share in the movie using 25 billion ‘Kevcoin’, named after the sci-fi adventure’s lead character and inspirationKevin Powder.

Everyone who appears in the film, as well as those buying a ticket to see it on the big screen, will be rewarded with Kevcoin. The online currency can also be purchased by those looking to invest in the movie.

The currency is built on the Blockchain used by popular online currency Bitcoin, with 1BTC representing 500m of Kevcoin.

The on-screen action follows ex-roadie Kev’s exploits – documentary-style –as he attempts to make a sci-fi epic called The Day Peckham Stood Still. It will feature real people he meets on the streets during filming. 

The whole project is the brainchild of comedian and directorJason Attar, who also plays Kevin. He came up with the idea as a way to give fans, investors, cinemagoers and those appearing in his “epic” a stake in what he hopes will be its eventual success.

As well as the new-style funding model, Jason, producer by Danny Wimborne and their team are shooting and editing the whole movie in just 35 days – with Powder’s Peckham set for a glitzy premiere at London’s PeckhamPlex on April 20. The film will then get a full release at the end of May.

Powder’s Peckham is the follow-up to 2013 comedy One Night In Powder, which won two awards, Best Micro Feature and Best Comedy, at the London Independent Film Festival.

Jason says: “This has never been done before. Independent films have such a difficult time reaching an audience, so we thought this could be a good way of building up that audience from the beginning, having advocates talk about it and ultimately share in its potential success.

“For instance when people buy tickets to come and see the movie, they will receive one million Kevcoin – worth around 60p but increasing/decreasing depending on the success of the movie – giving them a small but active stake in its commercial prospects.

“The coin will exist forever and once the film recoups its initial costs of £25,000, 25% of the profits will be shared among those holding Kevcoin. The payment will be made to the person’s public wallet address in Bitcoin.”

Jason has been performing improvised comedy for 20 years, winning awards for short form comedy and feature length films. He has starred on Channel 4, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, where he dislocated his shoulder on a live children’s show.

He added: “Kevin Powder is similar to Sacha Baron Cohen’s creations, but the difference is he focuses a lot more on the real people we meet and they spend far longer on screen. It’s exhausting trying to film and edit the whole thing in just over a month with just two crew, but I am determined to show it can be done.

“The character came from some advice that comedy commissioners had about me being quite fearless in front of the camera. So I wanted to create this physical buffoon. I wanted to get under the skin of someone that had utter belief in their own self but actually does things a bit upside down.

“Peckham is a great place to film, as it has the perfect mix of traditional Londoners, a large ethnic community and new trendy types. 

“Finding people off the street and improvising with them is notoriously difficult. But the majority of the time people are fine and enjoy the experience. Two brothers we met – Steve and Tony – were so good they play lead roles.”