ON STAGE: Justin Bieber performs in "Never Say Never," a part 3-D concert… (/Paramount Pictures / Associated Press)
February 10, 2011|By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times For decades, whenever a music or movie star popular with teenagers burst onto the scene, his or her rise to fame would be chronicled within months via what's known in the publishing industry as an "insta-book."
On Friday comes the "insta-movie."
"Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," part 3-D concert film and part glossy biography of the 16-year-old pop star, was conceived, produced, edited, marketed and released in little more than six months. That's a time frame virtually unheard of in notoriously slow-moving Hollywood, where movies typically take years to gestate.
Hatched by a division of Paramount Pictures focused on bypassing the lengthy development process and produced by the duo behind the reality show "Top Chef," the Bieber movie mixes cutting-edge, digital 3-D photography with grainy home movies and reality-show-style documentary footage to create a flattering portrait of the singer and his rise from small-town Canada to international stardom.
The resulting concoction is not only an attempt to cash in on a potentially short-lived phenomenon, but a model for hidebound movie studios to participate in a new media world in which fans create the popular culture as much as they consume it.
"Justin Bieber is a sensation created by fans on the Internet and we have to challenge ourselves to be relevant to that," said Paramount film group President Adam Goodman. "There's a place for the way we have done things for years, but with digital technology, we have the opportunity to move at lightning speed."
The Ontario native was discovered by manager Scooter Braun in 2008 from videos Bieber's mother posted on YouTube. Aggressive promotion on radio stations and social networks soon spread "Bieber Fever" to a rabid fan base that has bought 4.6 million of his albums. Last year, he was the No. 4 bestselling musical artist according to Billboard and the No. 3 most popular in concert, according to Pollstar.
Indeed, a movie is just about the only thing that the Bieber machine hasn't touched yet. He's already launched a merchandising and licensing bonanza with everything from watches to T-shirts, had a guest spot on "CSI," published his autobiography and is getting ready for a global concert tour.
