Myspace Doc In The Works With Gunpowder & Sky & The Documentary Group
16.10.2023 - 15:11
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Myspace, one of the first social media sites that helped launch the careers of My Chemical Romance, Lily Allen and Katie Perry, is getting the documentary treatment.
Gunpowder & Sky, the company behind docs such as 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez and Everybody’s Everything, is working with Tom Yellin-run The Documentary Group, which is behind series such as Netflix’s Amend: The Fight for America and Freeform’s The Deep End.
Tommy Avallone, who directed the Barney docuseries I Love You, You Hate Me and The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man, will helm the feature doc.
The doc will unite the original leaders of Myspace, which was founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, with the current owners Viant Technology, run by Tim and Chris Vanderhook.
It will also feature many of the original Myspace crew, as well as a slew of notable stars who got their start on the platform.
Myspace was launched in 2003 and was huge among teenagers and music fans before being dethroned by Facebook in the late noughties and later bought by Justin Timberlake and Specific Media.
Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler, who was at Viacom when the company was beaten out by News Corp to buy the site in 2005 for $580M, will produce with Trent Johnson.
Toffler said, “While working at MTV, we were all obsessed with Myspace and how they were able to build a filter-less connection between musicians and their fans – as well as fans with other fans. We tried to build it, buy it, befriend it, even mimic it – ultimately observing it as big media and tech coveted everything about it. Hell, without Myspace there’s no TikTok, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Instagram, no social media. The first ones in aren’t always the biggest, or