Ben Stiller Prepping ‘Billy Glimmer’ Web Series

Last night, at the Big Screen Little Screen Meetup held at Digitas‘ New York City HQ, Vice President of Paramount Digital Entertainment, Wendy Klenk screened a super exclusive trailer of the upcoming Ben Stiller web series, Billy Glimmer.

Ben Stiller’s been working on Billy Glimmer with writer Jason Woliner. He stars in the series as Glimmer, a Las Vegas celebrity entertainer. Glimmer is insanely popular and packs 400-seat theaters on the Vegas Strip on the regular. He does a million impersonations. Unfortunately, he does none of them very well.

Glimmer’s act is full of the celebrity impersonator must-haves (like Michael Jackson), but his specialty is finding a way to link two disparate impersonations through a common name. It’s like a live-action version of that Jeopardy category (A: This seventh President of the United States was a major figure in the abstract expressionist art movement. Q: Who is Andrew Jackson Pollock? Trebek: Correct!).

The impersonations straddle the line of so-bad-they’re-good, but what pushes them over into the realm of hysterical is the audience’s reaction. Everyone within earshot of Glimmer laughs like he exhales Nitrous Oxide. When you see them enjoying the show, it’s hard for you not to enjoy it, too.

Billy Glimmer is Stiller’s latest foray in online entertainment. The world-famous actor and comedian recently directed his parents on the Stiller and Meara web series for Yahoo, and has plans to launch a Zoolander animated series before Zoolander 2 hits theaters in 2013.

Stiller and Paramount Digital Entertainment are still prepping Billy Glimmer, but look for the series to hit the bright lights of you computer screen soon. This is definitely one to watch.

[Editor’s Note: The article has been updated from its original version as individuals close to the project contacted us with additional information. We’ll have more as the series develops.]