A, B, C, Die!

Riddle me this, deadman: what has an international, drop-dread cast, 25 killer directors, and – heh, heh – room for one more? That would be the Drafthouse Films, Timpson Films, and Magnet Releasing's ABCs of Death, "a 26-chapter anthology film that showcases death letter by letter." And guess what? Letter "T" is yours for the taking.

Patterned, sort of, on the wildly successful fake movie trailer contest that blew up around the Alamo Drafthouse's Grindhouse trailer contest (and which ultimately resulted in director Jason Eisener turning Hobo with a Shotgun into a mad decent feature film), ABCs of Death already has everyone from Angela Bettis (Roman) and A Serbian Film's Srdjan Spasojevic to Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes) and Down Terrace's Ben Wheatley on board.

According to the press release, "the 26th director spot will be determined by short film competition to discover an aspiring new talent. The winning filmmaker will receive a $5000 cash prize and will be included in the final release of the film.

"Participants will choose their own word and create a short film based off the letter 'T.' The interpretation of the word and the format of the short film will be entirely up to competitors. The top 10 shorts will be determined by public voting and the winning director will be selected by the 25 ABCs of Death directors to become the 26th and final director."

"We expect a lot of talented folks around the world to step up to this challenge, I just hope someone attempts T is for Tabanid (blood-sucking insect) or Taws (a thong used for punishment)” said Ant Timpson, longtime friend of the Alamo Drafthouse and the man behind New Zealand's Incredibly Strange Film Fest.

Submissions are open now and close on October 1 at midnight PST, and there is no entry fee to submit. Finalists will be announced October 31st and the winning filmmaker announced on November 15th. For more on the competition dates, parameters and rules, visit www.theabcsofdeath.com/the-26th-director.