The story of Napster, the peer-to-peer file-sharing service that disrupted the music industry, will soon be told in documentary form.
The documentary will track the rise and fall of the music network launched by college student Shawn Fanning in 1999. Alex Winter, Bill from the Bill and Ted films, will direct it.
As Deadline reports, Winter originally signed a deal with MTV Films to make a narrative, scripted version of the story in 2002. A decade later, Winter is still passionate about the project. VH1, which backed Winter’s 2008 film Anvil: The Story of Anvil is financing the film.
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker will both be participating in the project. Fanning created Napster from his dorm room at Northeastern University. Parker, an early employee at the company, was featured prominently in The Social Network, which inaccurately identified him as Napster’s creator. Parker is now an investor in the legal music-streaming service Spotify.
Speaking with Deadline about his interest in the Napster story, Winter said:
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook.”
He added that “it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later.”
Aside from the 2004 documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which touches on the impact that Napster and backlash from lawsuits filed against the P2P service had on the band Metallica, this is a story that hasn’t been explored in the cinema.
Considering Napster’s significance to the music industry and to the tech industry as a whole, not to mention the success of The Social Network, it’s about time. We look forward to learning more about this film.
More About: alex winters, Film, Movies, music, napster, p2p, the social networkFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:36:24 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/NY2cWU5uyk8/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/24/napster-documentary/#comments
The documentary will track the rise and fall of the music network launched by college student Shawn Fanning in 1999. Alex Winter, Bill from the Bill and Ted films, will direct it.
As Deadline reports, Winter originally signed a deal with MTV Films to make a narrative, scripted version of the story in 2002. A decade later, Winter is still passionate about the project. VH1, which backed Winter’s 2008 film Anvil: The Story of Anvil is financing the film.
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker will both be participating in the project. Fanning created Napster from his dorm room at Northeastern University. Parker, an early employee at the company, was featured prominently in The Social Network, which inaccurately identified him as Napster’s creator. Parker is now an investor in the legal music-streaming service Spotify.
Speaking with Deadline about his interest in the Napster story, Winter said:
“The rise and fall of Napster and the birth of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology created by Shawn Fanning when he was a college student, changed music to movies, and made possible everything from Julian Assange, WikiLeaks to the iPod and Facebook.”
He added that “it is a fascinating human story, where this 18-year-old kid invents a peer-to-peer file-sharing system, and brings it to the world six months later.”
Aside from the 2004 documentary, Some Kind of Monster, which touches on the impact that Napster and backlash from lawsuits filed against the P2P service had on the band Metallica, this is a story that hasn’t been explored in the cinema.
Considering Napster’s significance to the music industry and to the tech industry as a whole, not to mention the success of The Social Network, it’s about time. We look forward to learning more about this film.
More About: alex winters, Film, Movies, music, napster, p2p, the social networkFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:36:24 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/NY2cWU5uyk8/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/24/napster-documentary/#comments
