There is no guarantee of success if you are an internet celebrity transitioning to Hollywood. We may have seen wild successes, but the uncertainty of abandoning the web in hopes of being big in Hollywood can end in a no win situation.
Today DECA, a digital entertainment company, announced that it’s investing in the YouTube sensation Smosh to make original content for the web. The deal will make them an exclusive business partner in marketing and distribution. Anthony Padilla said, “We are extremely excited about joining the DECA family. We love making videos and the feedback from our fans has been amazing. With DECA’s help we look forward to bringing Smosh to even bigger audiences.” How DECA plans to find bigger audiences for the most-subscribed YouTubers ever will be interesting to see.
DECA was founded in 2007 by experienced entertainment and Internet executives who previously held senior roles at Sony Pictures, ABC, and Yahoo! Music. DECA uniquely identifies, funds, markets and distributes web shows. Based in Santa Monica, California, the company is backed by Mayfield, General Catalyst, and Atomico.
In other development news, popular YouTube comedian and celebrity commentator Michael Buckley recently signed a deal with HBO Labs to create online video shows. Joshua Cohen of TilzyTV says Michael is “just mean enough, just funny enough, and with the right dose of you-go-girl” to make it big.
In addition, a web pilot called The Remnants which stars web celeb Ze Frank (with other stars like Justine Bateman and Ernie Hudson) is currently being considered by NBC. It has been described as “a quirky and comedic story of a group of friends who search for answers and survival, upon realizing they are some of society’s last living inhabitants in post-something Los Angeles.”
As we fall deeper into an economic recession, the studios will likely consolidate their spending and turn to the web as a cheaper way to produce and reach audiences who use content to engage end-users.
In less time than Sarah Palin has served as governor of Alaska, Ben Huh’s company has grown from a tiny blog to a network with over 100 million page views a month. The company runs I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL blog, EngrishFunny, and many other sites that will make you LOL. I met the co-founders, Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami at ROFLCon in Cambridge, Massachusetts this year. They are releasing their LOLcat book just in time for the holiday season.
Martin Sargent is a TV personality perhaps best known for his time spent working on The Screen Savers at TechTV which later became G4. In 2005, he launched a show named Infected with Revision3. Infected ended in 2007 after 50 episodes and in 2008 Sargent introduced Internet Superstar, a show about internet celebrity. He currently hosts the show along with Web Drifter at Revision3.
Tom Anderson is the President of MySpace. As of September 3, 2008, Tom has over 243 million friends because he’s all users first friend when they start an account on MySpace. Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch calls Anderson a real life “WarGames hacker.”
Lil’ Wayne’s Lollipop music video has been recreated by two young up and coming women artists, Madison and Erin. Madison’s a micro-celebrity on Myspace where you may listen and download her music for free.
Drew Curtis is micro famous for his large presence online and involvement in off beat news aggregation. Fark started because Curtis liked to share news stories with his friends when in college and channeled his hobby into a website. Once Fark took off, he leveraged his fame into a multi-million dollar business and a best seller book on Amazon.
Leo Laporte is a tech broadcaster who gained popularity by podcasting and streaming live video at TWiT.tv, This Week in Tech. Laporte is known for being exceptionally insightful on new tech products and gadget reviews propelling TWiT to one of the most popular shows on iTunes and Stickam.
Felicia Day is widley known for her role in Buffy The Vampire Slayer in 2003. After tracking a long history in film and television, Felicia started her own web show, The Guild, which won the Greenlight Award for Best Original Digital Series Production at SXSW, the YouTube Video Award for Best Series, and the Yahoo! Video Award for Best Series. Recently, she stared in Dr. Horrible Sing Along Blog created by Joss Whedon (also creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) which was a runaway hit online. Few others have yet to make as much of an impact in both the traditional and new media worlds.
Ask A Ninja is one of the most popular and well known comedy shows online. Created by Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, Ask A Ninja answers questions from the audience in a spontaneous and very exaggerated way. The two creators have leveraged the success of their show into a position writing for a Hollywood remake of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Also look for a published book by the duo later this year.
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