from the hollywood re****ter
NBC nabs Rosario Dawson Web series
By Nellie Andreeva
NBC Universal is taking another stab at bridging the Internet-TV
divide.
The company has inked a deal with Stan Rogow, Brent Friedman and Jeff
Sagansky's Electric Farm Entertainment for the domestic rights to
their upcoming Internet sci-fi series "Gemini Division," starring
Rosario Dawson.
NBC Uni also has acquired the rights to Electric Farm's next scripted
online series, the zombie comedy "Woke Up Dead."
Sony Pictures TV International has come aboard to co-produce and
distribute the two series internationally on mobile, broadband and
traditional TV.
Under the deal with NBC Universal Digital Studio, the 50 three-minute
episodes of "Gemini" and "Dead" will run on various company Web sites,
including NBC.com.
The first several episodes of the series -- as many as eight -- will
get a preview across a number of NBC Uni platforms, including TV
networks.
"Our vision is to use the TV assets as a marketing device to attract
viewers to the Internet series," Rogow said.
"Gemini," eyed for a late-summer launch, stars Dawson as a New York
cop who uncovers a global conspiracy involving the creation of
simulated live forms that have assimilated with the unsuspecting
public.
Additionally, the two series also will be reformatted as seven
half-hour episodes to air on TV. But Rogow stressed that "Gemini" and
"Dead" are not intended to migrate directly from the Internet to
television. As part of NBC Uni's deal with Electric Farm, NBC is
getting first dibs at developing the properties as TV series.
"If there were to be a TV show, that would be a whole different show,"
he said.
That is a departure from the path NBC recently took with another
scripted online drama series, "quarterlife," which fizzled in its
much-hyped transplant to primetime.
Sources said Electric Farm has lined up a number of blue-chip
integration/marketing partners for "Gemini," including Cisco Systems.
Rogow declined to name any of them but noted that between the
integration deals and the pacts with Sony and NBC Uni, the company's
Web series are profitable going in.
"Gemini" is Electric Farm's follow-up to its first digital effort, the
futuristic drama "Afterworld," which also is being distributed
internationally by SPTI.
SPTI recently rolled out "Afterworld" in Australia on TV, broadband
and mobile and on the U.K.'s Channel 4. The producers are looking for
ways to wrap up the story in the series and are exploring an
"Afterworld" feature as a possibility.
Electric Farm's latest Internet series, "Dead," centers on an USC
student who wakes up underwater in the bathtub one morning and
suspects that he might be dead.
" 'Woke Up Dead' is a nice complement to our distribution briefcase,
and it is a little more appealing to the younger set," said Marie
Jacobson, SPTI's executive vp programming and production.
The sci-fi comedy thriller created by John Fascano, now in
development, marks an evolution for CAA-repped Electric Farms because
it is live-action with limited CGI elements. "Afterworld" is a
2.5-D-animated series, while "Gemini" is live-action with elaborate
3-D animated backgrounds.
"You don't get a chance to invent something in your lifetime as
original as this in both business and creative sense," Rogow said
about Electric Farm's efforts. "It's not anywhere near as easy as it
looks, but we're doing some pretty exciting stuff."
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