NBC, Samsung, Celebrities Sign on for ‘FCU: Fact Checkers Unit’

FCU: Fact Checkers Unit first debuted as an Official Selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Starring Peter Karinen and Brian Sacca (aka comedy duo Pete and Brian), the nine-minute short quickly gained attention from The Washington Post and anyone who likes to watch awesome things online. It’s a fast-paced, whimsical story of two fact checkers at fictional men’s magazine, Dictum, who approach their job in industrial Brooklyn with the kind of thoroughness expressed by Made Lebowski‘s doctors. Kristen Schaal has a cameo. So does Bill Murray.

FCU’s second coming will debut August 17 all around the world. NBC Universal is at the helm a global distribution strategy for an eight-part web series based on the original short film. Samsung Electronics will sponsor the series as part of a promotion for its latest Android phone release, the Galaxy S.

Produced by SXM – the production company behind another short-film-turned-NBC-original-web-series, Ctrl – FCU the web series continues where the short film left off.

Karinen and Sacca’s characters get their paychecks from men’s rag, Dictum for answering to

nothing but veritas and investigating the accuracy of claims the magazine makes about celebrities. Each episode will feature a different entertainment personality, including Luke Perry, Alex Trebek, Dave Navarro, Karolina Kurkova, Donald Faison, Pauley Perrette, Zach Gilford, and Jon Heder.

Samsung’s media agency, Starcom claims FCU will be the first “globally distributed web series.” In addition to the types of domestic websites and platforms where you’d expect to see the series – NBC.com, Hulu, Syfy.com, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, mobile phone carriers, and Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable VOD services – Samuel Axon notes overseas the series will appear day-and-date in the “United Kingdom via Syfy’s digital distribution platforms, SyFy Universal in Singapore and Japan, and the Sci-Fi Channel in Australia.” NBC Universal will also use on-air television time to promote the series on the Syfy channel and NBC network.

In the series, FCU‘s ardent fact checkers will both be armed with the new Samsung Galaxy S to help them hunt for pop culture stars and the truth.