What's it take to get a movie off the ground? For decades, screenplays, best-selling books or compelling in-person pitches typically triggered green lights for big Hollywood pictures. But increasingly, filmmakers are stitching together high-concept trailers to sell studios on movies that do not yet exist.

Dubbed "rip-o-matics," these hybrid clips compress a film story's key points into a brief visual synopsis. "Fame" director Kevin Tancharoen, for example, pitched his vision for a movie adaptation of the video game Mortal Kombat by posting an eight-minute spec short on YouTube that stirred studio interest after racking up 2 million hits on YouTube. A group of Finnish filmmakers are using spec trailers to raise money for their sci-fi movie "Iron Sky."

And producer Scott Glassgold this month hit a home run after deploying a faux trailer that excited a Hollywood feeding frenzy. Early this year Glassgold secured the English-language remake rights to an obscure Serbian movie called "Technotise: The Edit." "We had acquired this wildly entertaining, high-concept movie that was a very popular property overseas, but it wasn't really on anyone's radar in the United States," he says.

To generate buzz, Glassgold commissioned viral video maker Jaron Pitts to cut together pre-existing movie footage into a two-minute trailer. Shortly after the "Technotise" clip went online in February, Glassgold's office was flooded with more than four dozen queries from production companies and agents. Writer-producer Laeta Kalogridis ("Shutter Island," "Avatar") signed up to develop a scripted pitch.

Three weeks ago, Glassgold finalized a financing deal with Legendary Pictures, which specializes in tentpole action pictures like "The Dark Knight," "300" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." Glassgold, a partner in IAM Entertainment, says he's happy his instincts paid off. "We went outside the box and used Jaron's skills with ripped trailers to bring to life our vision for a live-action 'Technotise' remake."

Something to sink your teeth into

What good is a global movie franchise without peripheral properties that tap into fervid fan appetites?

To feed the rabid followers of "The Twilight Saga" movies, gourmand Gina Meyers has written "Love at First Bite: The Unofficial Twilight Cookbook."

Available at www.iuniverse.com, the book features recipes for dishes described in the pages of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" book series. Among the dishes included are Harry's Famous Fish Fry, Edward's Cornflake Chicken and Jacob Black's Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Full Moon Pancakes and, of course, Bat Chips.

Blockbusted: Summer 2010 is dreadful so far

The hits this summer have been few, with attendance dipping 13 percent below the 2009 season. Jeff Bock, an analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., says he's not surprised. "A couple years ago I looked at the release schedule, and realized this would be the weakest summer for movies in a long time."

One problem, Bock notes: "There aren't many safety nets, and by that, I mean comic book movies, huge properties, big-budget sequels. That's what drives summer box office."

Bock points out that even the perceived flop "Clash of the Titans" earned nearly half a billion when foreign box office is factored in. And he's optimistic about a couple of non-sequel pictures coming in July, including Leonardo DiCaprio's "Inception" and Julia Roberts' "Eat Pray Love." But August, he says, is shaping up as "unusually weak, even by Hollywood standards." Although domestic revenues, by Labor Day, are expected to fall considerably short of last summer's $4.3 billion total, executives have not gone into panic mode for one simple reason: "Next summer you're going to see the next 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' 'Thor,' the next 'Hangover,' 'Kung Fu Panda 2,' another 'X-Men,' 'Cars 2,' 'Transformers 3' and the final 'Harry Potter' ... are you kidding me? It's packed with blockbusters." {sbox}