Sony Pictures Grabs Multimedia Rights To Afterworld

Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) announced that the company has acquired all of the gaming, television, internet, digital, and mobile rights to Afterworld, an animated episodic drama from producer Stan Rogow (Lizzie McGuire) and writer Brent Friedman (Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation screenplay). The landmark move is particularly interesting in that it marks the company's first acquisition of a project to be implemented across all of these platforms simultaneously, creating a concept that is “tailor-made for today's digital consumer.” As part of the agreement, SPTI will acquire 130 two minute episodes of Afterworld, which will be distributed across television, internet, and mobile channels, as well as compiled into 13 half hour episodes for broadcast distribution. The deal calls for dedicated web content to be made available on the Afterworld website, in addition to plans for archived back episodes, daily journal entries, community blogs, interactive content applications and online games. According to a press release from SPTI announcing the agreement, Afterworld follows the adventures of Russell Shoemaker, who wakes up in New York after an event that renders technology useless and 99 percent of the population missing. The futuristic drama follows Shoemaker as he walks to Seattle, hoping that his wife and child have survived. Russell pieces together the complex mystery behind the global event while encountering survivors rebuilding society in strange and surprising ways. “As much as I've enjoyed working in all the conventional mediums, I believe we have created something that represents a new form of content -- the online convergence of television and video games,” noted Friedman. “Hopefully, Afterworld will not only become appointment viewing, but an immersive, interactive experience that warrants spending many hours in our digital sandbox.”