NFT
“Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder and “Workaholics” co-creator are working on the NFT-enhanced animated series “Space Junk,” announced earlier this week, and the experience provided a stark contrast to the traditional Hollywood approach to producing movies and TV series.
With NFTs, Web3 creators have pioneered new types of models that allow supporters to fund projects and participate in the creation process, as well as allow creators to connect directly with fans without typical barriers and middlemen.
“Traditional television is old, slow and corporate. Things don’t happen quickly,” Russo said Decrypt. “Decisions are made by giant committees, versus Web3 with Toonstar where it’s like, ‘Do you want to do it? Let’s do it. Let’s go now.'”
‘Napoleon Dynamite’ star Jon Heder to lead NFT animated series ‘Space Junk’
Toonstar is the animation studio behind it “Space Junk,” a web series about workers clearing space debris – with a NFT twist. Like with his previous series “The Gimmicks”.“Space Junk” NFT holders can participate within the community and even help influence future episodes.
Russo compared Web3’s creation process to the experience of developing “Workaholics,” the cult-favorite Comedy Central series that spanned seven series and launched the careers of Adam DeVine and other actors. “Workaholics” started as a YouTube series, with the platform democratizing the means of showing content to the world. Russo sees the NFT space as the same kind of opportunity.
“For not much money we could film these things and put them on YouTube. And without that there would be no entry into the industry for me,” he recalled. “It just feels like we’re probably leading the way. And I think [Web3] is a cool place to create things.”
Heder said Decrypt that he welcomes the opportunity to allow “Space Junk” viewers to participate in the creative process through NFT voting and access, and that Web3 offers a way for people who normally only consume content to now shape it as well.
“There are so many creative voices now,” Heder said, “that this could be a really good way to really just see what’s happening if you allow a large portion of the audience to bring in what they want to see, what they want. to belong.”
However, “Space Junk” isn’t Heder’s first move into Web3. He co-founded the Web3 studio and agency Verified laboratorieswhich launched Heder’s Order of the Tigons NFT art project on Theta last year and also recently brought that project into the Ethereum metaverse game, The Sandbox.
He is also a voice actor in the upcoming Web3 series “Cyko KO: The Animated Series,” with fellow “Napoleon Dynamite” actors Tina Majorino, Efren Ramirez, Haylie Duff and Jon Gries. It is also linked to NFTs minted on Theta.
I’m just going to say what we all think… what happened to the tip of Hank’s 🍆? pic.twitter.com/bb8T0Yui56
— Space Junk (@spacejunkiesxyz) Apr 25, 2023
Tellingly, Heder said he was drawn to Web3 by the prospect of re-embracing his creative side Decrypt that he had been an animator and illustrator in the past before “putting those tools down for a while” as his acting career blossomed. Creating in Web3 has given him the chance to “get back into my art brain,” he said, and work on developing new IP.
“Once you have these qualities and once you create these worlds, and everyone in the entertainment industry knows you’ve got a good thing,” Heder said, “the sky is the limit in terms of what you can imagine and what you can create.”
