PRESS RELEASE:
Interlude, the interactive media and technology company, announced today that they have entered into a deal with CBS to develop an original interactive project based on the cult classic “The Twilight Zone.” Award winning game creator, Ken Levine will write and direct the pilot episode, which will uniquely allow viewers to step in and become a part of the story.
“The future of digital entertainment taps into the viewer’s emotions with all the elements of the content – from the story and the way it’s told to the medium on which it is delivered – making them not just the audience, but also participants,” said Yoni Bloch, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER of Interlude. “By bringing Ken Levine’s unique vision to the iconic ‘Twilight Zone’ series, we look forward to pushing the limits of what entertainment can be.”
“The Twilight Zone,” which first aired in 1959, is a CBS television anthology series created by Rod Serling. The series ran for five seasons and has remained a fan favorite since its introduction. The Interlude project will take the lead from the series’ original approach, but will add a new dimension: the viewer will be able to change and adapt the story based on what he or she feels. As with all other Interlude videos, viewers can return repeatedly and have a different viewing experience each time.
Ken Levine is a world-renowned game developer who has received critical acclaim for his many landmark projects, including the BioShock series, which is considered to be one of the greatest video game franchises of all time largely due to its unique settings and morally complex storytelling. He was named one of the “Storytellers of the Decade” by Game Informer Magazine and Guillermo del Toro called him “one of the best world creators in any of the visual forms, period.”
“I grew up watching ‘The Twilight Zone,’” said Levine. Rod Serling’s work taught me the potential of shocking and surprising an audience. I’m thrilled that Interlude has offered me the chance to step into the writer/director’s chair to try to bring his storytelling style to a new medium. Giving the viewer a voice in the narrative opens up the opportunity for a new generation to experience ‘The Twilight Zone’ in an entirely new way with entirely new stories.”
Tribeca Talk on the intersection of Filmmaking and Gaming
Levine, along with award winning game director and Interlude creative director, Sam Barlow, as well as film director, producer and screenwriter, Will Gluck, will participate on a Tribeca Film Festival panel, Tribeca Talk, exploring how the lines between gaming and filmmaking are now beginning to blur in the constantly changing entertainment landscape. The panel took place on April 18 at 8 pm in New York City.
About Interlude
Interlude (www.interlude.fm) is a media and technology company that is pioneering a new form of media in which video can respond to a person’s actions and interests in real-time. Stories told using Interlude’s patented technology platform can adapt in a multitude of directions; the viewer steps into the story to make choices that affect dialogue, and even the plot, at any particular moment in time. This means that viewers are offered nearly infinite experiences in live-action video within a single piece of content, resulting in highly engaging experiences that consumers play over and over.
Interlude partners with entertainment companies, independent creators, and top brands to create episodic series that are distributed widely through a network of affiliates on the mobile web, mobile apps, and the web. Interlude investors include Sequoia Capital, NEA, Marker, and Innovation Endeavors. Strategic investors include MGM, Intel Capital, Warner Music Group and Samsung.
About Ken Levine
Ken Levine (@iglevine) is the creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games. He led the creation of the multi-million selling, multiple Game of the Year award-winning video games BioShock and BioShock Infinite. “Through a combination of obsessive hard work, an affable personality and marketing savvy, Ken Levine has become one of the most beloved creators of narratively fulfilling, big-budget video games. Not only do his BioShock games sell well (the first sold more than five million copies), but they are also taught in colleges and parsed in the same way as, say, David Lynch’s film “Mulholland Drive” was analyzed by critics,” says the New York Times.
Besides developing this project with Interlude, he is employed at Take Two Interactive developing an exciting new game project.
