Studios flock to Kane Parson’s mom’s house to learn how YouTube works

The 21-year-old Backrooms director is the belle of Hollywood ball. If only his mom's air conditioning wasn't on the fritz. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  July 17, 2026 | 1:04pm
Screenshot: YouTube
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Studios flock to Kane Parson’s mom’s house to learn how YouTube works

After two years of languishing with old superhero movies audiences don’t care about anymore, studios have found a pocket of gold: YouTube. Over the last three months, the likes of Curry Barker, who found his footing making shorts for Google’s user-generated video platform, and Alex Kister, the 22-year-old who just landed a deal with Steven Spielberg for his YouTube horror series, The Mandela Catalog, have become the hottest commodities in Tinsel Town. However, if these studios want these young brains to show their executives how the internet works, they’re going to have to deal with some parents. You don’t get Curry Barker unless you release a short film by his dad starring Dane Cook. As for Kane Parsons, the director of Backrooms, the breakout hit about a furniture store basement, they’re going to have to visit his mom’s house. Well, they would if her air conditioning was working. 

Per Puck, Parsons is at the center of the feeding frenzy for young, internet-enabled brains, and studio representatives, including Warner Bros.’ Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, flew to Burbank to meet with the young filmmaker, who lives in the area. In fact, they would’ve done the meeting at his mom’s house, but the air conditioning was on the fritz. Which is all to say, studios are at least attempting to engage in a time-honored tradition that made the World Wide Web what it is: Going over to a friend’s mom’s house and watching some weird shit on the internet. 

But they’re throwing everything at Parsons, who, unlike Barker, has yet to sign a deal with any studio. Though he was pitched an overall deal with Warner Bros. and HBO Max, and got a meeting with Christopher Nolan, Parker is still playing this thing close to the chest—or close to the vest, as Nolan might say. It should be A24’s to lose, considering they released Backrooms. But as Puck‘s Matt Belloni points out, the super cool indie studio and merch depository has a bad track record of hanging on to talent, with The Daniels and Robert Eggers moving on to bigger budgets and more established studio pastures as A24 releases Opus and Death Of A Unicorn. One thing they’re floating at Parsons is a TV deal and a Backrooms sequel. If we may, Parsons, take our advice: hold out for whichever studio has the best snacks. 

 
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