New Delhi: Neymar Jr.’s AI clone is going to act in a live-action micro-drama created with COL Group’s FlareFlow platform. The series will premiere on 19 June.
The footballer has signed a contract for a 16-title micro-drama franchise, which will have episodes following sports and science-fiction themes. The six debut titles premiering this month will be The Way Back to Glory, The Playboy: Scoring the Goddesses, Soccer Star Kidnapped into the Galaxy Cup: Score or Die, Fake Neymar, Real God, Project to Legend: Ney 10 and The Limping Janitor is the True Football King. Neymar has licensed his likeness to be used in the series.
James Wang, CEO of FlareFlow, shared that the partnership with Neymar represents a defining moment for the global entertainment industry. With Neymar being one of the most magnetic athletes on the planet, his star power combined with AI creative workflows will allow creators to push existing boundaries of storytelling, he said.
Timothy Oh, General Manager of COL Group International and FlareFlow Chief Marketing Officer, shared that this collaboration will mark a new dawn for the company’s Vertical 2.0 strategy.
“We are expanding premium vertical storytelling far beyond its first wave into highly scalable genres like sports, timed perfectly to capture global attention during the World Cup season,” he said.
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Footballer on FlareFlow
With 200 million followers across social media platforms, Neymar becomes a significant validation for the vertical entertainment category. The series will be premiered in China on Xiaohongshu, a digital lifestyle platform, with daily active users of over 200 million, and also on FlareFlow platform, which has released more than 5,000 series, in 14 languages throughout 200 countries.
Neymar Jr has also worked in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017); he made a cameo as a footballer. He is not the only footballer entering the entertainment industry; Vinnie Jones, who was a Chelsea midfielder, transitioned into acting with Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Mean Machine (2001). Eric Cantona, a Manchester United forward, starred in the Oscar-winning film Elizabeth (1998) and the drama Looking for Eric (2009).