Buzzfeed's first film is about a Buzzfeed writer

Jim 'Sheldon Cooper' Parsons to star as Buzzfeed editor Matt Stopera in Buzzfeed's first movie.

The adaptation of a viral story about a missing cellphone will mark Buzzfeed's first foray into movie making.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that, n collaboration with Warner Bros, the rising media company is to make Brother Orange starring Big Bang's Jim Parson as Matt Stopera, a Buzzfeed editor who had his phone stolen in 2014.

A year later, random photos of a serious-looking Chinese man in front of an orange tree began appearing on Stopera's photo stream.

He wrote a series of articles that exploded on Chinese social media site Weibo, where they helped Stopera track down the man, Li Hongjun, who had been dubbed Brother Orange.

The two eventually became friends and appeared on Ellen together. The talk show host will co-produce the movie alongside Broad City co-lead Ilana Glazer.

This will mark a rare leading cinematic role for Parsons, who has spent much of the last 10 years as Sheldon on Big Bang, a role that has earned him four Emmys and US$1 million per episode.

Buzzfeed started back in 2006, and has risen in prominence as a media organisation over the last few years.

There is no word yet on whether the script will be written in listicle or quiz format.