‘Sidewalk’ Creators Ink Deal With WME and Brillstein Entertainment
Written by SOURCE on April 8, 2021
Sidewalk has captivated Instagram users and New York City residents and now the creators of the viral 1-minute social media talk show are planning to bring their visions to the small and silver screen.
Deadline announced on Thursday that Trent Simonian and Jack Byrne have signed to WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners with plans to produce long-form content. The 19-year-old NYU students told Deadline that they were ready to take Sidewalk to the “next level” after signing their new deal.
“We have been able to build an extremely diverse and loyal audience on Instagram that includes celebrities such as Bella Hadid, Charlie Puth, Tyga, and others as fans of the show,” they explained. “We collaborated with rapper ASAP Rocky to bring his virtual Yams Day concert to life and we have been able to turn several regular New Yorkers into local celebrities.”
Despite inking a TV and movie deal, Simonian and Byrne won’t abandon the platform that made them famous. In fact, they look forward to showcasing how New York City bounces back from the pandemic as well as turn more people into internet sensations.
“We look forward to continuing to create short-form digital content with Sidetalk for the next few years while we are in college at NYU,” they continued. “We have been doing the bulk of our filming during the pandemic, while many have been saying that New York City is dead. As the city comes back to life this summer, we are excited to showcase the city’s revival and energy to the rest of the world.”
As mentioned, Sidewalk and their sidewalktalknyc Instagram page have created a culture within their own. The page now has nearly 300,000 followers and has birthed viral memes like the BKTidalWave, aka “The Queen of Brooklyn,” and Spider Cuz. Although this is entertaining, their looking to save their best ideas for the projects they create through this partnership.
“Once we have built a reputable following of people who are interested in seeing more of our work, we plan on applying our skills to develop our own TV shows and movies – not necessarily with the same man-on-the-street concept as Sidetalk, but matching the same energy and unique flare that we bring to our content,” they explained.
