Hollywood's screen legends are to be immortalised in a $25m (�16m) Motion Picture Hall Of Fame.

Monuments to the movie industry's biggest stars will form the focus of the venue, due to open in Los Angeles in 2004.

Directors, producers and writers will also be honoured in the hall among interactive exhibits and areas dedicated to horror, comedy and science fiction.

A group of businessmen is behind the project at a converted office building at the junction of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.

Screen legend Mickey Rooney is backing the venture

Six individuals will be inducted into the hall of fame every year - an actor, actress, director, scriptwriter, producer and composer.

Critics and entertainment journalists will nominate potential inductees, and the public will be invited to vote on-line on the finalists.

The founders have created a statuette called the Max - a golden figure similar in appearance to the Oscar but with separate legs and elbows.

Interactive

It will be presented to inductees at an annual awards ceremony televised across the US.

The hall will include interactive exhibits, such as a "giant camera walk-through" with magnified moving parts, and the "pillars of fame" with monumental displays of inductees.

But according to Hollywood civic leader Johnny Grant, the venture does not amount to a museum.

"It will be a multi-million-dollar, multimedia experience," he said.

Actor Elliott Gould was at the launch

Movie stars already have their hand prints embedded in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Their names are enshrined in sidewalk stars on Hollywood Boulevard and their lifesize likenesses on display in the Hollywood Wax Museum.

History

Zachary Taylor, senior vice-president of Hall of Fame, conceded that other museums and displays celebrated film history.

"But nowhere does the public have a true opportunity to interact on an individualised level with movie making and history," he said.

"That's a void we plan on filling."

Actors Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Elliott Gould and Martin Landau joined the hall of fame's publicity launch.

Rooney reminisced about long-gone stars, saying: "There will never be another Judy Garland."

Saluting the longevity of the movies, he added: "Hollywood is alive, thank God."