WorldStarHipHop Movie Coming From Paramount And Russell Simmons

Paramount Insurge, the micro-budget division of the big studio, is teaming with Russell Simmons and a host of other producers to make a WorldStarHipHop film. The movie will be loosely based on the site that does huge traffic numbers thanks to a steady parade of videos of fights, hip hop performances, and other phone-captured weirdness. (I saw a few people joking on Twitter that the film will be the first shot in portrait mode.) We don't have many more details, but what we know is below. Given the fight films that show up on WorldStarHipHop, you might figure the movie would be a Jackass sort of thing. But no. Deadline says the pitch is "akin to Ferris Bueller's Day Off in tone." Guess that rules out a 90-minute "fire challenge" movie. Ian Edelman (How To Make It In America) pitched the story, and is writing the script. He may also direct.

Site founder Lee "Q" O'Denat (who has called his creation the "CNN of the ghetto") is also a producer, along with Douglas Banker, Trevor Engelson. The idea is to shoot the film this fall in New York City, and then likely rake in a ridiculous amount of money in the spring.

The question is how WorldStarHipHop and all the attached producers can make money off concepts that the site already gives away for free. That's part of its incredible popularity, after all. Got a few minutes to kill? Want something insane to watch on the bus? WSHH is guaranteed to have video of people doing even more ridiculous stuff than you previously figured possible. Is the brand enough to bring people in? Probably, yeah.In fact, since this will be shot on the cheap, it's an easy guess that WorldStarHipHop could be one of the more profitable films of 2015.