"I was working with an acting coach while preparing for this role," actress/model Victoria Silvstedt tells me as she sinks into a leather couch in a chic downtown hotel. "I was trying to get that vampire queen spirit. What I've done so far, the filmmakers have been really happy with."

It might sound like Silvstedt is taking her latest role a bit too seriously. This is, after all, a vampire movie, riddled with martial arts sequences and loads of special effects--probably not Oscar bait. But Silvstedt, a Guess Jeans model and former Playboy Playmate of the Year, has the lead in Slayers, a production which has just wrapped in Montreal this week, and she knows the stakes are high.

Instead of just sending this film directly to video, or in limited theatrical release, local Blackwatch Productions is going to make Slayers the first feature available only through the Internet.

"The Internet goes to the whole world, so it's really good exposure," says Silvstedt, batting her inch-and-a-half eyelashes at me while pulling her blonde locks back. "This is an extremely good chance for me to grow as an actress." For Silvstedt, the film's cyber-status was an added bonus, one which offered further incentive for her to take time out of her busy schedule to fly to Montreal for a week's shooting. In addition to the modelling gigs, Silvstedt cohosts a weekly Italian pop culture/current affairs program, Fenomeni, as well as a bimonthly gig cohosting the British fashion series, Eurotrash. She's also giddy about planning her upcoming wedding in Manhattan, to a former Entertainment Tonight reporter.

The cheese factor

But Silvstedt insists Slayers has been worth it. "It's more of a challenge to play a strong character," says Silvstedt, who once had a recurring role on Melrose Place as an amorous nurse. "I play a vampire queen with attitude. The queen mother of all the vampires. She's a strong seductress, she's got the power. This is different than anything I've done before. It's a good stretch for me."

Slayers involves various battles between vampires and mere mortals. Silvstedt has a pivotal role, demanding at one point that her slaves bring her the head of her enemy. "One of my vampire slaves gets the head of my enemy, so he gets to share my embrace. I think lots of guys will enjoy this. There are fires, explosions, shootings, fights, stunts."

Bill Mariani, Blackwatch CEO and producer of Slayers, knows the whole thing sounds a bit cheesy. But the word doesn't seem to bother him. To Mariani, Slayers is a bold experiment in filmmaking, one which signals a potential brave new world in the entertainment industry.

Shot digitally on a budget of just under a million dollars, Mariani hopes the feature-length film will help Blackwatch to push the limits of movie development on the Internet. "I really want to blaze some new trails," says Mariani, who hopes the completed project will be edited and ready to download within months.

So far, his company hasn't done badly at all. While continuing to produce low-budget films primarily for the international video market, Blackwatch has also proven a formidable national film distributor, handling titles like Tim Roth's auspicious directorial debut The War Zone, the Oscar-winning All About My Mother and The Girl Next Door.

But Mariani, like so many, has bought the hype. "I really believe the Internet is the future," he says, determination intact even after the severe NASDAQ hiccup of last month. "People's attention spans are just so short. Ninety minutes is so long to hold someone's attention. The zapping factor must be taken into account. If people don't like something on TV or are bored by it, they can just zap their way out of it."

Cornering the content market

Mariani is fully aware of the dilemmas facing those who want to offer cultural product on the Net. With TV being free, will people actually pay to download movies or programs off a Web site or channel? And though technology is changing rapidly, most computers still can't handle downloading more than a brief clip without freezing, crashing or taking forever to screen. Most people simply don't have the patience.

"I would be really arrogant if I said I had all the answers to an Internet strategy," Mariani says. "All I know is that it's coming. And for us, there would be many bonuses. We wouldn't have to work with the studios. I can go straight to the audience. We're working to develop a Blackwatch Channel, in which people could download virtually any genre of films as well as, say, a soap opera, with a new segment online every day. When taking a break from whatever they're doing, a person could simply download the segment and watch it while eating their Snickers bar."

But first, Mariani realizes he must make Slayers, his pilot project in the master plan, work. "There will be no fee for downloading Slayers. It's a 90-minute feature, but we're going to edit it down into 10-minute segments, which people can look at individually. There will be merchandise available, toys and video games. As people come onto our site, the site would note their addresses, how many hits we're getting and from who. From that we'll build a database to help us try to figure out what our target market wants. We're going to try and grab that elusive 15- to 25-year-old male audience."

Thus Slayers, Blackwatch's e-movie B-movie, will serve as a litmus test and survey of a potential audience. It sounds like a fairly cynical reason to make a movie, but hey, Mariani doesn't need that pointed out to him. "You've got action, people on fire, people flying across the room, you've got gorgeous women, you've got a Playboy Playmate. What's not going to attract a 15- to 25-year-old male to that site? Nothing."

Mariani, who says his fascination with TV and film began with a fixation with the '70s TV series SWAT, states that he's just not happy unless he can continue to make his company grow. "I see this as absolute virgin territory. And I don't see it as a big risk. People are going to be looking for Internet content, and we'll be there. I've always gone with my gut, and my gut tells me this is going to be big."

Silvstedt, meanwhile, is also looking towards Slayers' future possibilities. "I just hope they invite me back for the sequel!" :