A journalist turned screenwriter is on a recruitment drive to cast actors for a short film set to form part of an epic cinema feature.

Stuart White, once a US correspondent for the News of the World but now settled in Ingress Park, Greenhithe, has been working on a script called Seeing Beethoven, a two-minute tale set hours before a meteor sparks the apocalypse.

Filming will take place in north Kent this summer, with Mr White working with the Kent Film Office to find locations.

When complete, the film will feature alongside dozens of other projects as part of Impact 50, which will be shown in UK cinemas.

Mr White has already brought in a few helping hands to produce the film, including a director.

“An American film-maker, John Koster, based in Berlin, wants to come over in early to mid-August to make the film,” he explained.

“It will be a three-person affair. He will shoot the film, his wife will do sound, I will produce. We hope to shoot in the Dartford or Gravesend area, depending on what local authority cooperation we can get.”

Two leading men are needed – one in his mid-sixties to play a blind man, and one between his mid-20s and mid-30s to play a Bulgarian immigrant. The pair will meet on a park bench as the end of the world draws near.

Forty extras of all ages and genders are also required to run in terror down a busy street. All of the acting roles are unpaid, but Mr White hopes the chance of appearing on the big screen is enough incentive.

The opening scene of the whole feature will be written by Joe Eszterhas, who penned the Sharon Stone film Basic Instinct.

Mr White has plenty of writing pedigree, too, having spent decades as a journalist before trying his hand at screenplays.

“I moved to Greenhithe three years ago and I also have a house in France, but I studied screenwriting in Los Angeles where I lived for 10 years while based there as a correspondent for a national newspaper,” he said.

“In my career I’ve covered wars, revolutions, famines and civil strife. I’ve visited more than 78 countries, 44 American states, and every continent in the world except Antarctica.”

Impact 50 is also a competition. Among those judging the entries are Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs writer Ted Tally, Nicole Perlman, who wrote Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Lisa Albert, who wrote and produced all eight seasons of Mad Men.

If you would like to be involved in the film, contact Mr White on stuartwhite383@btinternet.com.