Eisner’s Vuguru in Deal for Live-Action Web Series

January 28, 2008 World Screen

BEVERLY HILLS, January 28:
Michael Eisner’s new-media studio Vuguru is launching a prequel web and mobile
phone series based on the novel Foreign Body, by bestselling author Robin Cook, in conjunction
with France’s Cyber Group Animation.

The series, which will be
co-produced by Cyber Group Animation and developed and directed by online
entertainment company Big Fantastic (Prom Queen, Sam Has 7 Friends), is set to debut on May 27, 2008, ten weeks
before the book becomes available worldwide. A new episode will be released
every day, five days a week, for 10 weeks, leading up to the last installment
on August 4. On August 5, G.P. Putnam’s Sons will publish Foreign Body, which will be available nationally, featuring the
same characters and picking up where the web series leaves off.

“By joining forces with
bestselling author Robin Cook and pioneers of Internet storytelling Big
Fantastic, we have taken the best of two genres to create a web series that
will change the traditional publishing and marketing model forever,” said
Michael Eisner. “As the internet continues to evolve, Vuguru remains committed
to producing quality content and finding new and exciting ways to enhance the
storytelling experience.”

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Robin Cook commented, “I’m
so happy that my work has brought together my longtime publisher and one of the
entertainment industry’s innovative new media companies. My hope is that this
web movie series will be a new experience for readers everywhere. It will be
really exciting to see my characters come alive online.”

Pierre Sissmann, the
president of Cyber Group Animation, which will co-produce and handle
international distribution, added, “Robin Cook is an international brand with
loyal readers all over the world and the market is looking for innovative
content to distribute on all formats. With this internet series that we will
also distribute on TV, we are already shaping the future of content in terms of
360° distribution.”

In Foreign Body, Cook focuses on a series of unexplained deaths in
foreign hospitals that sends an idealistic UCLA medical student on a desperate
search for answers, taking her to the dark side of medical tourism.

—By Mansha Daswani