Andrew Fisher, founder of Never Underestimate Radical Vision™ (aka www.nurv.com), has embarked on an epic journey to create the first film to cast accidentally-famous viral video stars as principle actors. Take Antoine Dodson, for instance, whose interview on a local television network became an internet sensation, resulting in an auto-tuned song by The Gregory Brothers that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Dodson is but one of a full viral cast that is sure to entertain their billions of fans, but also, build another bridge between the world of web and the world of film.

MMM caught up with Andrew in Denver, Colorado, to find out more on this new film concept.

MMM –What do you feel are the essentials of going viral?

AF –The theory is you need a video that appeals to people on a level that stands out from other things that they’re seeing. So if there were any algorithms to figure out what exactly makes the video go viral, all those things would be taken into account, but the number one thing is just getting enough people that feel that way in very diverse areas of the world. And by that, I mean not everyone centrally located because then it will get big in one area but it may not spread... If there was an exact answer to that, then I would have made a lot more viral videos.

One day could be totally different then the next. So you could spend a month working on a video, by the time you put it up it doesn’t appeal to people anymore… Really, you just have to be able to stick your finger out, feel which way the direction of the wind is going, and head in that direction with your video.

MMM – How do you feel the media industry has changed over the years with viral marketing and the availability of social networks and video portals to promote intellectual properties and business ventures?

AF – In 2005, I actually did a viral campaign for the concept of putting the temporary tattoos on people as a form of advertising. There was no Twitter, Facebook was still very new, and Myspace was there but really not something people had used for “social marketing”. So there really wasn’t anything like that, and I was able to raise about fifty thousand dollars on Ebay, but it was mostly through TV networks and news websites that had picked up the story and really ran with it.

Back then, things really didn’t go viral because the machine was not in place for them to do that. If somebody has a really big idea now and can build the fan base, when they have something else coming up in the future, they can just build upon that same fan base as opposed to starting from scratch. So it allows people to really have a lot of media power on an individual level.

There are some YouTube channels that are run by individuals that have three-plus million subscribers. If they put a video up anybody on their subscription list will see it. Five years ago, the only way you could get something out to two million people at the same time would have been doing a massive press release and just keeping your fingers crossed that the media picked it up. But now with social networking, people are able to channel those viewers through their own social networking accounts instead of having to rely on the media to deliver.

MMM – You recently released a concept trailer for a full feature film featuring these “viral celebrities” titled the Chronicles of Rick Roll, which has also gone viral and hit the mainstream media. How was this idea conceived and brought to a reality?

AF – First and foremost, I’m a big fan of viral videos. I’ve watched all of these and have seen a lot more, but I really had the idea with my brother Scott, one day, to get as many of these viral videos stars as we could in something together. There have been things that people have done before such as the Weezer music video a while back where they included a lot of viral video stars, but we want to do something very different from that. We had the idea to do a movie with these characters where they all exist in a very fantasy, alternate world.

The idea was basically what if the internet was a world of its own, how would that look? How would people interact with each other in that world and furthermore, how would an outsider see that world? In a nutshell, it came about because we’re big fans of internet humor and that culture, and really, there hasn’t been a movie that spotlights a lot of that. People joke about internet references that make it into movies but never to this level, and we felt that there was enough of an internet culture following. I estimated close to, if not more than, two billion views represented by the cast that we have so far, and that includes copycat videos re-postings on other websites.

MMM – Taking the personalities of the cast and turning them into characters must have had some challenges. How did they feel about turning themselves into fictional characters?

AF – I would say that they’re not entirely fictional; their characters in this film are of course tied to what made them big and what people know them for, but we have to expand on that to give them more of a personality. Part of establishing how these characters act and look in this world are sort of based on what people already know them for, but we wanted to also give them traits and aspects. We allowed the actors the opportunity to provide some input for what they felt would be a bigger version of their character. In many senses, it was a reflection of themselves.

One thing I did not want was them to make fun of themselves; I don’t want to make them look bad. This is not a spoof film; I wanted to show that they can be more then what they were made famous for. We wanted to give them roles and lines that would put them on a higher pedestal then what people have viewed them as before.

MMM – I think most who have surfed the web have been Rick-Rolled at one time or another. How does the title relate to the movie?

AF – The characters name is Richard Roland, and the title ‘The Chronicles of Richard Roland’ is certainly a play on words of the video, and using it as an extra joke to include in it because a lot of people know what that is.

MMM – Can the audience expect a cameo appearance from the legendary Rick Astley?

AF – I certainly hope so. At this point, we’re certainly not that far along, but there’s no reason that we are not going to try our hardest to get that.

MMM – Do you feel that the cast being viral in nature will make the marketing of this film easier?

AF – It wouldn’t be a viral video on its own if these people had not ever had viral fame; it wouldn’t be funny because it builds off of those jokes. If you know the references and are familiar with the jokes and the characters, then you’re automatically telling your friends. In the same way where you know a new movie is coming out and has a lot of your favorite stars in it, you’re gonna tell people you know? We’re going to use that same strategy combined of course, with traditional marketing, but that will only supplement the true viral nature that all these people have. In some cases, hundreds of millions of views and certainly, millions of fans who will inevitably want to see a movie that has them in it.

MMM – What do you hope the audience will take home with them?

AF – That these YouTube stars and other characters can be so much more than what they’re already known for, and that the internet itself can be a really good platform for a comedy, action, epic adventu