Snapchat and co-founder Evan Spiegel to get cinematic treatment – CNET

Like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg before him, it looks like Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel will have his story adapted for the big screen. Or at least the little one.

During a SXSW panel Friday, Hollywood bigwig Jeffrey Katzenberg and tech VIP Meg Whitman talked up Quibi, their upcoming streaming service for short-form video. The idea behind Quibi (for “quick bites”) is to serve up HBO-quality shows in YouTube-like snippets for viewing on phones. And one of those shows will be Frat Boy Genius, a portrait of Spiegel and the beginnings of Snapchat.

“We want to tell a story that is as compelling and interesting about the creation of Snapchat, and Evan’s story, as The Social Network was for Facebook,” Katzenberg, a co-founder of Dreamworks, said during the panel.

Katzenberg and Whitman, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, expect Quibi to debut in April of next year, with plans to launch a new series every other Monday, Katzenberg said. Shows can have short, standalone episodes of about eight to 10 minutes, he said, or the short segments can be stitched together into longer, feature-length offerings.

Previously announced shows include a “modern zombie story” directed by Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro and an anthology called 50 States of Fear, with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi in charge.

Quibi has $1 billion in funding from Hollywood studios, but it’ll be up against competitors like YouTube, HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Facebook and Apple.

Snap didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.