While wrangling between producers and directors over final cut is not uncommon, New York-based entertainment company Madstone and writer-director Aaron Woodley are taking the unusual step of handing over editing on their feature "Rhinoceros Eyes" to a slew of novices. As part of the Madstone U. Filmmaker Program, the company is giving film students from nine colleges the opportunity to refine their editing skills by working on 50 hours of "Rhinoceros Eyes" footage. Students will also get two original scores, three versions of the film's voiceover and copies of the shooting script to work with.

The first feature spawned from the Madstone Directors Program, Woodley's debut premiered last fall at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the Discovery Award. Company will release the film April 23 in New York before expanding to other cities in spring. Concurrent with the openings, participating schools will show student edits either on campus or at a Madstone theater.

"Each school can interpret the project however they see fit," said Madstone founder and co-CEO Chip Seelig. "The advanced editing classes at USC and U. of Georgia, for example, have chosen to recut the film in its entirety. Other schools may re-edit just a few scenes; still others will be given the footage to use on any number of editing projects for years to come."

Plans also are in the works to feature alternate student edits on the film's eventual DVD release. Other schools participating in the hands-on workshop program include NYU, Emerson College, Columbia College, Tampa U., Denver U. Film School, Colorado U. at Boulder and the U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

"Some filmmakers would be nervous to let their footage out; it's like showing their dirty laundry," said Woodley, a nephew of David Cronenberg's who gained his initial filmmaking experience as an assistant on his uncle's shoots. "But I'm excited to see what the students do."

"Rhinoceros Eyes" stars Michael Pitt, Paige Turco and Gale Harold in a coming-of-age story about a reclusive prop-house employee whose obsession with a production designer spurs him to come out of hiding at night and undertake increasingly reckless missions.