Daniel Radcliffe, the star of upcoming ghost story chiller, THE WOMAN IN BLACK, has launched an initiative to find the UK and Ireland’s scariest story. He is urging budding writers to submit their own original short story to THE WOMAN IN BLACK YouTube channel. The winning entry will be recorded by Radcliffe and included on THE WOMAN IN BLACK DVD and the winner will win a trip to London to attend the Premiere of THE WOMAN IN BLACK in early 2012.

Daniel Radcliffe announced the competition with a reading of an iconic scene from Susan Hill’s original novella.

Radcliffe adds some advice for potential entrants, “For all you budding writers out there remember that it’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration so good luck and I can’t wait to see what spooky stories you guys come up with in the coming months.”

The competition will run exclusively on YouTube. Entrants have to upload short videos of themselves reading their original ghost story through the film’s official YouTube page - www.youtube.com/thewomaninblackmovie. The competition closes on the 20th of December 2011, whereupon ten finalists will be chosen and voted for by the public. The winner will be announced on the 6th of January 2012.

A full set of terms and conditions are available on the YouTube channel.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK is based on the world famous ghost story by Susan Hill. The film follows the fate of Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House.

Working alone in the old mansion, Kipps begins to uncover the town’s tragic and tortured secrets and his fears escalate when he discovers that local children have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances. When those closest to him are threatened, Kipps must find a way to break the cycle of terror.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK also stars Ciaran Hinds (TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY) and Janet McTeer (TUMBLEWEEDS) and was adapted from Susan Hill’s best-selling novel for the screen by Jane Goldman (KICK ASS) and directed by James Watkins (EDEN LAKE).

THE WOMAN IN BLACK will be released across the UK and Ireland by Momentum Pictures, an Alliance Films company, on 10th February 2012.

About Momentum Pictures and Alliance Films

Alliance Films, Inc. is one of the top five international independent filmed entertainment companies in the world. A leading multinational distributor, co-financier and producer of filmed entertainment, its member companies, Alliance Films and Alliance VivaFilm (Canada); Momentum Pictures (UK) and Aurum Productions (Spain), offer integrated delivery of content in all media.

On the production front, strategic partnerships include: a feature film co-production and acquisitions deal with Italy’s Medusa Film; a first-look deal with Iain Canning and Emile Sherman’s See-Saw Films, which yielded the lauded feature THE KING'S SPEECH and upcoming SHAME by Steve McQueen; the production joint venture with IM Global, Automatik run by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones; and a five-picture deal with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY producers Oren Peli, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider with titles that include the recent James Wan release INSIDIOUS and Barry Levinson’s upcoming THE BAY.

About Hammer Films

Originally founded in 1934, beloved British film studio Hammer has delivered a hugely successful run of films over the years including Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Quatermass Xperiment. The company is now a London based production subsidiary of Exclusive Media Group (Exclusive) who are working to reinvigorate this famous English film brand through new investment in the development and production of film, television and digital-platform content.

Not in production since the 1980’s, the company marked their come back last year with the launch of the critically acclaimed Let Me In starring Chloe Moretz (Kick Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road), an adaptation of the highly acclaimed Swedish film, Let the Right One In.

Hammer’s latest release will be the highly anticipated adaptation of The Woman in Black directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake), written by Jane Goldman (Kick Ass) and starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first role since the Harry Potter series. Further Hammer releases have included Antti Jokinen’s The Resident starring two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) and Wake Wood directed by David Keating.