Mattel Planning Big Web Series Push For Barbie’s Beau Ken

Barbie gets all the attention—the outfits, the special editions, the SNL parody sketches—but what about her forlorn beau Ken?

Mattel has been looking to reinvent Ken with an ever so clever product placement as a central character in Toy Story 3D this summer. Now it looks like they are turning to the world of web series to revamp their plastic bachelor.

We came across this site for a new reality web series Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend that seems to have just gone up this week. It looks like a casting call for now to find the real-life eligible bachelors who will star in the 8-episode series this fall. Is it just me or would Bannen Way star Mark Gantt be a shoo-in for this?

Saw a Tweet Today Wondering About Creating a Web Series… Or NOT?? Ask Mark Gantt About Being FEARLESS!

Okay, so I’m not going to get on a soapbox and preach but I think it’s pretty amazing that web series creators are making their “Passion Projects” as my friends from the WebTV Workshop say… and that in itself says a lot about where the entertainment industry is going, everyone now has access, PLUS you have unlimited opportunity to reach everyone who has a smart phone or Internet access, so what are you waiting for?

Okay – so you hear people say “Be Fearless” and maybe you think it’s a cliche’ but when you look at the example of how web series creator/actor Mark Gantt took what was in HIS HEAD and made it into a webseries that now has international distribution by Sony…. you want to know more about how it was done, right?? How it can help you be FEARLESS!

Well… let’s start with what happens when you don’t let the word “NO” or the phrase “you can’t do it” rule your world…and you follow your dreams…

Professor Gantt? Win Tickets to ‘Bannen Way’ Star’s Class
by Marc Hustvedt on August 24th, 2010

Mark Gantt is a mysterious man. Ok, actually if you’re been paying even passing attention to web series over the past year then you’re no doubt familiar with the story of him and partner Jesse Warren hustling together a spec trailer to a web series (The Bannen Way) they hadn’t even shot yet and landing full season order and distribution from Sony Pictures Television.

But there’s still a mystery to this guy. And this weekend Streamy-winner Gantt plans to share some of his secrets to carving out his own path in the entertainment industry and not waiting for success to just come to him.

‘The Bannen Way’ DVD Hits Shelves Today

by Marc Hustvedt on July 20th, 2010
By now, if you follow even passively the world of web series, you know well who Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren are. They were the two aspiring creators that defied the odds, making just a trailer to pitch their action drama—The Bannen Way—to anyone who would fund it, ultimately landing a deal with Sony Pictures Television for release on its online network Crackle. To be sure, it was one heck of a slick looking trailer, and there’s something to be said about having Neal Bannen (Gantt) himself making the pitch.

 

Locke's Redbox Picks Of The Week
by Locke Peterseim | Jul 31st, 2010 | 6:31PM | Filed under: DVD Reviews, Movies, Weekly redbox Picks



Recommended Smaller, Overlooked or Underrated Movies from the redbox Kiosks

The Bannen Way–About as polar opposite a crime flick from Jesse Stone as you could concoct, The Brannen Way was originally a made-for-the-Internet webisode series–a major-studio synergy experiment to see what happens when you put a little cash and flash into a web series. What happens (as collected here seamlessly into a full-length film) is a pretty by-the-numbers Tarantino/Smoking Aces/Guy Ritchie/Oceans 11 mash-up, but that’s not all bad. It’s directed and co-written by Jesse Warren, and series co-writer Mark Gantt stars as Neal Bannen, your usual roguish, hard-luck thief in cool suits, but Gantt’s a likable stretch of sleazy, Christian-Slater charisma.