Hollywood in recent years has raced to mine the Internet for raw talent capable of crossing over to traditional platforms like movies and television, the places where the real money is still made. Those efforts have largely failed, reports The New York Times.
What works on the Web – rough-edged intimacy, quick bites – just doesn’t seem to translate onto bigger screens.
Lucas Cruikshank, a 16-year-old from rural Nebraska, created a character – a tantrum-throwing 6-year-old named Fred Figglehorn whose voice is sped up to “chipmunk” levels– about four years ago. Since then, Fred has become a Web phenomenon, with some of Cruikshank’s YouTube videos generating more than 10 million hits. Over all his channel, has logged nearly 70 million views since 2005.
But the director-producer Brian Robbins (“Norbit,” “Varsity Blues”), United Talent Agency and a management company called the Collective are giving it a go with Cruikshank. “Fred: The Movie,” written by David A. Goodman, an executive producer of “Family Guy,” started filming in November for a 2010 release.
Photo by The New York Times.