The world of online video entertainment just got a little bigger as Vuguru’s online hit Prom Queen is heading for France and Japan, where it will get a makeover to appeal to local audiences overseas. Vuguru will produce and distribute the the new versions through Japan’s Rights Entertainment and Cyber Groupe in France.

Both the original Prom Queen and it’s spin-off Prom Queen: Summer Heat are part of the deal. Localized versions of the show will start running overseas in 2008. In addition to France and Japan, Vuguru is in talks with other European countries and Russia.

A Reuters quote from Vuguru’s Michael Eisner says it all:

“If you do something well, there’s appeal for it around the world,” Eisner said in an interview.

With 15 million views for Prom Queen, it’s obvious Eisner’s done something well.

This will extend the Prom Queen brand into new markets, while generating additional revenue for Vuguru without a lot of extra work. While the revamped shows will need some fine-tuning, the basic concept and framework is there, so there isn’t a lot of development work that needs to be done.

Even better, Vuguru learned the lessons of The Office. When the hit BBC show tried running just a subtitled version of the original comedy in France. It flopped. But when the show was revamped from the ground up with local actors and re-written with inside jokes that the French would get, it became a hit. (There’s also a German version, in addition to the localized American one). Prom Queen is taking the same approach.

And that’s something we can all say arigato for.