Self-described “CNN of the ghetto” lands a feature film spin-off
It’s seen by nearly 30 million pairs of eyes a month on PCs, smartphones and mobile screens, but now Paramount Pictures has made a deal to let fans of WorldStarHipHop.com experience the infamous shock-site in a whole new way: In movie theaters.
Founded in 2005 and called “the CNN of the ghetto” by its outspoken founder Lee “Q WorldStar” O’Denat, WorldStarHipHop (WSHH) is a video-focused content aggregation site that gained popularity mainly through sharing viral videos of surreptitiously-recorded street-fights, pranks, stunts, injuries, public sex-acts and other “shock-site” material. While most of its content is culled from users in urban American neighborhoods, the site also hosts music videos, “challenges” and (more recently) licensed advertising.
While it has been heavily criticized by social activists as profiting from the spread of content that reinforces negative stereotypes of the American inner-city and young African American men in particular, the site has become so ubiquitous in popular-culture that it’s not uncommon for would-be viral-videographers to shout “World Star!” during filming in hopes of seeing their work posted to the site (or to see parodies of the same).
The plot/premise of the film (set to be produced by O’Denat, Def Jam’s Russell Simmons and others) is being kept secret, but is said to resemble Ferris Bueller’s Day Off tonally. Insurge, Paramount Pictures’ low-budget arm, is looking to shoot the film in New York City in fall of this year.
Source: Deadline Hollywood
