TVREAL
Ben Smith’s book Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral has been optioned by Atlas Media for a limited documentary series.
Traffic tells the story of how, in the early days of digital and social media, a handful of quirky and competitive players raced to harness the powers of the internet to create billion-dollar businesses driven by viral content.
The limited series will be directed by Bruce David Klein, Atlas Media’s president and executive producer.
“I’ve been fascinated for some time about how the idea of ‘going viral’ on the internet was born, and how it developed,” said Klein. “And when I read Ben Smith’s brilliant book—and considering his first-person experiences during that era, not to speak of his extraordinary access—we realized we had a way into one of the most important stories of our time.”
Smith commented, “Traffic was a very personal project for me, considering I knew or worked with many of the innovators profiled in the book. I am thrilled that producers with the track record of Atlas will be bringing this story to life in a multipart documentary.”
