LOS ANGELES -- It's a cattle call on the Web.
Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar Interactive unit is staging an online talent search in conjunction with its upcoming cops-and-robbers movie Blue Streak, implying the winner could hit the Hollywood big time.
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For the last few weeks, the Sony unit has been soliciting video material at comedy clubs around the country, comedy bulletin boards and chat rooms, as well as on the movie's Web site. The three best submissions will get a showing online.
"It's tough for somebody in St. Louis to get somebody in LA to see them" do their comedy routine, said Ira Rubenstein, vice president for marketing at Columbia TriStar Interactive. "The Sony studios get a million unique visitors a month. This is kind of like Star Search for the new millennium."
Within just a few days of putting out word of the contest, Sony had received thousands of comedy routines -- video cassettes, video email, Zip disks, acts filmed with Web cams ... you name it.
CTI is so snowed, in fact, that its six interns may end up spending a chunk of September sifting through all the submitted material -- and the division is considering assigning each of its 70 employees 10 video routines to review, Rubenstein said.
The studio will pick three finalists in early October whose routines will be posted at the site. Visitors to the site will have a chance to vote on their favorite comedian from the three. The grand winner will get a free trip to LA for two and a chance to perform at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip.
The idea, of course, is to get lots of people intrigued enough to go see the comedy when it opens on 17 September. Martin Lawrence stars as a thief who is forced to hide his stolen diamond at a construction site when his $20 million jewel heist goes bad. "Here is YOUR chance to be discovered as a diamond in the rough!" the site says.
Now, Sony executives are waiting to see whether the unusual Web promotion pays off in higher box office receipts for the movie. "I've heard of comedies doing cross-promotions with comedy clubs, Rubenstein said, "but never anything like this."
