Digital Journal — If you think you’re the next Vince Vaughn, but you’re toiling in obscurity on a site like YouTube, don’t worry — Hollywood is trying to find you.
United Talent Agency, one of Hollywood’s top five talent agencies, has created an online unit to scour the Web for up-and-coming stars. The goal, executives told The New York Times, is to not only to recruit the next generation of TV writers and stars, but to also provide major Web portals with the content they need.
The online unit will help find work for these e-stars both on Web-based media and “old media” like TV shows. Defying industry norms, the unit will accept unsolicited submissions (preferably as Web links) and then later sign clients without seeking approval from more senior departments.
United Talent — representing actors like Vince Vaughn and Back Black — is taking a risk in banking on Netizens who could be no more than flashes in the proverbial pan. For example, United’s new online agents recently signed a group of filmmakers who parodied Justin Timberlake’s music video “Sexyback” with their own take-off called “Paxilback.” But how popular will this satirical group be once Timberlake’s video fades from memory? And, more importantly, United is hoping these amateur filmmakers can repeatedly attract attention, even in the face of mountainous competition from other online-video superstars.
If United’s online effort succeeds, it’s only a matter of time before every other Hollywood talent agency begins combing through the Web for the next Jack Black. That could bode well for the millions of filmmakers posting vids on YouTube and Google Video, but it’s also a sign of maturity for Hollywood. They are willing to invest money into a division that could flop, as the dot-com bust taught them. Without much hesitation, brave Hollywood execs are diving into the very messy pool of the Internet, trying to find that shining needle in the biggest haystack of them all.
