BuzzFeed’s Much Delayed ‘Brother Orange’ Documentary Picked Up by Gravitas Ventures (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Addie Morfoot Contributor Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide distribution rights to BuzzFeed Studios’ documentary “Brother Orange.” The doc follows the story of Matt Stopera, a BuzzFeed founding editor, whose life takes an unexpected turn when his stolen phone becomes the catalyst for a 2015 BuzzFeed article that went viral.

The film chronicles how Stopera tracks down ‘Brother Orange,’ a.k.a. Li Hongjun, who’s selfies taken next to orange trees begin appearing on the reporter’s ‘ iCloud feed a year after his phone was stolen.

Hongjun, who lives in China, ended up with Stopera’s stolen phone. The story received over 100 million views on social media, including over 70 million shares on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.

In 2016, Variety reported that Jim Parsons was in talks to star as Stopera in the Warner Bros. narrative adaptation of the “Brother Orange” article, which never came to fruition.