"David" <dimlan17@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:0kje04pid9aojgi49gtil1dgk1imn150ap@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 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."
And yet they don't have $$$ to give to Dimension Films to finally show the
Six Million Dollar Man in the US and pay Jack Klugman his Quincy
royalties??
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