Could you get Joe Dante to direct one of the episodes? "From the director of GREMLINS and THE HOWLING!" Plus, he also did worked on The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories so he has the background to do anthology work.
Joe Dante is a very distinct and real possibility. I personally know his director of development (she's one of my Facebook buddies!) and I've dealt with him indirectly before. I'd love to work with Dante, and it's not like he's untouchable in terms of salary demands.
Hearing that it's supposed to be web-only and have TV production values makes me very nervous. People on the internet want dumb short-form garbage like The Guild, or at best something kooky like Dr. Horrible. Comedy seems to work well, but I don't know about horror/thriller/suspense.
Eh, I think the only thing that has been properly marketed towards Internet audiences (in terms of stuff developed for the web) has been dumb, short-form garbage and narcissistic humor. I think the fact that a lot of people watch and purchase television shows on the Internet is proof enough that there is a market for this stuff, but people are only going to watch and/or buy it if it
is television quality.
Marketing is the biggest hurdle for a lot of these productions, and something that we intend to address -
aggressively. It boggles me that something as slick as The Bannen Way could be launched through the Sony umbrella, and major media outlets did not even receive press kits. Press kits! Those things hardly cost anything!
... We've been looking into Facebook and Google advertising, and both of those are economical. Radio/television is not insanely cost prohibitive. So marketing has actually been allocated into the budget that is being used to pitch the series.
I don't want to go into detail about Netflix or Hulu or any other big online content providers, other than to say that we're all very aware of their presence and are actively involved and/or trying to open discussions with them. It wouldn't be wise of me to say much more beyond that.
Did you happen to see The Box? Up until the point where it becomes completely and totally stupid, it's a pretty good take on Twilight Zone (complete with the overwrought symphonic score).
I would hope so, since it was based on a Twilight Zone episode! I haven't see it, though. I probably check it out once it hits Netflix. Everyone involved are devout Matheson fans, so we'll probably view even the lamest of adaptations.
When you say you are in charge of developing the mythos, does that mean you intend to have a serialized arc for the frame story?
This is correct. There's a lot more to the character of Cole Kirwin and the part he plays in all of this. While each episode has a unique story, we hope to develop an arc for the projectionist himself. In fact, the first episode I wrote really changes the status quo in regards to his character. I guess there is still debate about whether it should serve as a finale or mid-season episode.
