Dutton Signs Major Multimedia Trilogy
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 8/28/2008 7:47:00 AM
Dutton has laid out big money for what it's dubbing a "digi-novel" by the creator of the C.S.I. television franchise. The Penguin imprint paid millions for a multimedia three-book series from Anthony Zuiker that, at its centerpiece, features a mystery novel which will send readers to a Web site with companion footage relating to the plot.
Zuiker's chapters will close with codes that readers can use online to unlock "motion picture footage" that continues the storyline from the book. The deal, for world rights, was made by president and publisher of Dutton, Brian Tart, with Dan Strone, CEO of Trident Media, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Morris Yorn and Barnes & Levine and CAA.
Zuiker's story, of a government investigator named Steve Dark who goes rogue after his family is murdered by a drug kingpin, will, as Dutton noted, "move from books to film to the web with ease." The house called the deal "unprecedented in the publishing industry."
When asked if Zuiker's project mimics, on some level, what Scholastic is trying to achieve with its much-hyped multimedia project, The 39 Clues, Strone said this project is "more complicated and deeper." Strone added: "When I took [Zuiker] around to meet with publishers their mouths dropped on the floor."
In addition to online film clips, the multimedia effort will include a web-based community portal with different characters and more spin-off storylines. According to Dutton, the portal will be a place readers can "consume countless ancillary levels of story enrichment." Tart said the best way to think of Zuiker's forthcoming work, slated to launch in fall 2009, is as "storytelling 2.0."
Zuiker told PW that the book can be read traditionally "from cover to cover and it will be like any great James Patterson novel," but that those who want a deeper experience can watch the online videos, which he called "cyber bridges." The goal, Zuiker said, is to bridge the gap between the existing novel reader and the YouTube generation.
