Hula-Hoop It Up

Web site: www.thumb.com

Premiered: 1999

Description: Movie parodies starring thumbs, including Thumb Wars and Thumbtanic

Impact: Thumb Wars went prime time on UPN last May. Thumbtanic scored 15 million hits in 15 days, possibly thanks to its featured spot on an Earthlink commercial

Today: While writing films like Ace Ventura, Pet Detective and Patch Adams in his spare time, Oedekerk continues to expand his "thumb-nation" technology. Future projects include The Blair Thumb, Thumb Wrestling and the pop musical, Thumbs.

This article was originally published in the July 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Hula-Hoop It Up.