Movies
Does Facebook Owe Vin Diesel “Billions” Of Dollars?
You know how basically all Vin Diesel news comes from his Facebook page? While we wait for the re-coupling of Diesel and director David Twohy on Riddick, it’s hard to think of an image or still that didn’t originate from the actor’s social networking wellspring. With an astonishing 43 million “likes”, why not? It’s the ultimate portal to reaching his fanbase.
Now Diesel tells EW (via EntertainmentWise) that his candor and accessibility has generated bucket loads of revenue that might have otherwise gone untapped. “Facebook used to ask me to come up to their office to explain what the f–k I was doing, and why I had so many fans… What Facebook didn’t realise is something very big was about to happen, and that was—for the first time in history, and it’s kind of a fluke they didn’t see this coming—when I jumped on that page in April 2009, I started talking to people. In the realest ways… Imagine if you could’ve been a Facebook friend to Marlon Brando, or whoever your role models are… So, when I started talking to the fans, I became the No. 1 page in the world,” Diesel boasted. “Over Coca-Cola, over huge companies. And it was only because I said: ‘Hi, guys, I love you.’”
His secret? “I never let anyone do a post, I never let anyone post for me in the last four years. My audience knows me so well on the page that if my producing partner’s in the room when I post, they’ll know somebody was around me. That’s kind of cool, that’s how sophisticated they are. Facebook really owes me billions of dollars. But whatever.”
While I seriously doubt Diesel is considering collecting from Zuckerberg and co., it’s an interesting phenomenon. While I think that Brando and Elvis are in an altogether different league, it’s hard to argue that his approach doesn’t garner results.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.