BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, the publishing giant’s video division best known for snackable short-form clips, is readying its first feature film. BuzzFeed is teaming with Warner Bros. to make a film entitled Brother Orange, which will tell the true story of a strange and serendipitous BuzzFeed post that went crazy viral in China, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2014, Buzzfeed deputy editorial director Matt Stopera lost his iPhone at a bar, and then, a year later, noticed strange images of a man standing next to an orange tree appearing on his photo stream. Stopera wrote several posts about the incident, which ultimately became a viral sensation on Weibo, a Chinese social platform. There, users helped Stopera track down the man, Li Hongjun, whom the Weibo community had nicknamed ‘Brother Orange’. Stopera eventually traveled to China to meet Hongjun, and the two also appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last April.
DeGeneres will serve as an executive producer on the forthcoming film, as will Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer and Stopera, who happen to be roommates, according to the Reporter. BuzzFeed Motion Pictures’ heads of development, Michael Shamberg and Matthew Henick, will also serve as producers.
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The project is being developed by Flagship Entertainment — a joint venture between investment platform CMC Holdings and Warner Bros. that was founded in September 2015 to create films targeting the Chinese market, according to the Reporter.
