On 28 February 2000, a nineteen year old Houston man earned an important lesson in gun safety when he played Russian roulette with a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. Rashaad was visiting friends when he announced his intention to play the deadly game. He apparently did not realize that a semi-automatic pistol, unlike a revolver, automatically inserts a cartridge into the firing chamber when the gun is cocked. His chance of winning a round of Russian roulette was zero, as he fleetingly discovered.

Rashaad had just become the unwitting recipient of a DARWIN AWARD…

Over the last few years the Darwin Awards have built up a dedicated worldwide following. Named after evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin the awards are bestowed annually upon those individuals who instigate the most idiotic accidents of the year – thereby doing the human race a favour by removing themselves from the gene-pool!

Now for the first time, this global phenomenon is being made into a motion picture. Finn Taylor, the writer director of DREAM WITH THE FISHES and CHERISH has assembled an all star cast led by WINONA RYDER and JOSEPH FIENNES to pay tribute to some of the very best (or should that be worst) Darwin Awards of all time.

Michael Burrows (JOSEPH FIENNES), a forensic detective in the S.F.P.D. has become increasingly fascinated by the number of Darwin deaths being reported. Brilliant but overly cautious he is fired from the force for allowing a serial killer to escape in the line of duty. Determined to prove a common theme in these cases Burrows joins forces with Siri (WINONA RYDER) – a clinical, no-nonsense insurance investigator specializing in the more bizarre claims received. With sparks flying in the best Hepburn-Tracy tradition this unlikely duo attempt to uncover the mystery of these ‘Darwin’ casualties.

Along the way our heroes come across a parade of unforgettable characters: the speed freak who strapped a rocket launcher to his Chevy Impala in his quest to set a land speed record. The two guys who decide that dynamite is the fastest way to break through a patch of ice to go fishing. The teenagers who will do anything to break into a Metallica concert, and the ad executive who is so confident in the strength of his shatterproof window that he throws himself at it despite being on the 25th floor…

DARWIN AWARDS – A dead funny comedy you’d be stupid to miss.

Read the books by Wendy Northcutt, creator of www.DarwinAwards.com