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The Scary City, a mystery cyber-series helmed by award-winning Japanese writer/producer Yumiko Aoyagi, Former Executive Producer for the groundbreaking Internet production lonelygirl15, is turning to YouTube to cast the 11 leading roles in her latest enterprise, which she describes as “The Blair Witch Project meets Lost.”

The $5.2 million production, a cutting-edge international mystery, is combined with an online social networking community and $1.4 million website designed by international, award-winning web designer Yugo Nakamura, the acclaimed founder of THA, his own renowned design firm, in cooperation with IMJ, Japan’s leading interactive agency.

Starting this Tuesday (8/26), three videos will be posted on YouTube and The Scary City website (www.thescarycity.com ) which will provide explicit instructions on how to submit taped auditions for the roles being cast.

“This is your chance to be a star,” says Aoyagi. “Whoever wants to be in The Scary City, and has the characteristics we are looking for, is eligible. There are total of 11 roles available, ranging from a 10 year-old girl to 70 year-old man.”

Production will begin on two separate, but interrelated versions in L.A. and Tokyo (with the latter being co-produced by Japanese hit-maker Tamon Andrew Niwa), in September with the contest to cast the U.S. edition, which evolves around a haunted apartment complex and the missing 10-year-old daughter of an architect, who battles the building’s unseen forces, featuring a cast of tenants from all over the world who get caught up in the global intrigue.

The 11 roles being cast are as follows:

*Tom, a handsome, “hot and sexy” dad in his mid-30s to mid-40s, a genius architect, the protagonist of the story.

*Courtney, his beautiful, 10-year-old daughter, who must “sing like an angel.”

*Naomi, a Japanese woman in her mid-20s, who speaks both Japanese and English fluently.

*Victor, her husband, in his late-20s to mid-30s, a genius surgeon with a mean streak who is very jealous of his wife’s admirers.

*Edan, an Israeli high school physics teacher.

*Maria, his wife, who keeps her heart problem secret as she awaits a transplant.

*Chris, his rebellious 16-year-old son.

(All three must look Middle Eastern and speak Hebrew)

*Jake, a nerdy webmaster in his early 20’s.

*Beatrice, a chic, stylish gorgeous French woman in her 20s, a saleswoman for a high-end fashion line who must also be bilingual.

*Damian, a tall and handsome British banker who is also “two-faced,” and treacherous.

*Lucas, a 70-year-old whose true intentions are unknown.

The entries will be narrowed down to the three most viewed YouTube auditions for each role, then judged by The Scary City’s major sponsors along with the show’s producers. The winners will appear not only in the online version of the mystery, but in the feature film as well, and will, one by one, take residence in the haunted L.A. apartment building, which is the setting for The Scary City.

“With this announcement, The Scary City officially gets underway,” says Aoyagi, creating an unprecedented interactive casting call. “We don’t know where reality ends… and the fantasy begins.”

The Scary City series, which will start with five 90-second-to-three-minute episodes a week, will eventually be turned into a major motion picture, with content delivered to mobile phones and featured in Manga graphic novels.