As far as types of entertainment go, web series are generally the most solid and well-crafted of the bunch, perhaps just ahead of marionettes. But despite dedicated fanbases who understand how a web series can give fans of any genre exactly what they’re looking for, a lot of these shows don’t make it into conversations or catch the public’s attention as a whole. But exceptions are happening all the time, as they’re slowly becoming “the next big thing to adapt for TV and film."
Comedy film production company Mosaic Media Group will wading into unfamiliar waters, Variety reports, as they’ll be bringing the YouTube horror series Marble Hornets to theaters. Marble Hornets was created by Troy Wagner and Joseph Delage in 2009, and has spooked its more than 250,000 subscriber fanbase as well as other viewers with 65 episodes that have accumulated over 55 million video views. So at least this is an established product and not just something some out-of-touch producer’s nephew said was cool. You can take a look at the first episode in the series below, as the protagonist begins looking through tapes left behind by a filmmaker friend who has died:
Luckily, Marble Hornets is quality short fiction, and should be serviced well enough in the hands of James Moran, the second unit director from the last three Paranormal Activity films. That kind of hand-held camera work should cross over nicely. He’ll be working from a script written by Ian Shorr, who wrote the underrated low-budget monster movie Splinter.
The show is basically a series of video entries shot by narrator Jay, whose friend Alex’s film project, Marble Hornets, begins to show evidence that Alex is being stalked by the mythical creepster known as the Slenderman, called The Operator in this show. The show mixes found footage tactics with a very meta approach to bringing the horror into realistic situations. Production for the film will begin at some time in the spring.
