"Heroes" and "Touch" creator Tim Kring is entering conspiracy territory.
Kring is teaming with Sonar Entertainment, Pure Grass Films, Connect Ventures and transmedia development company PlayThisNext on conspiracy-thriller "The Drake Equation," which will air simultaneously with a real-time digital narrative that will be available over social media and interactive gaming.
Also read: Fox Wins 'Touch' Copyright Lawsuit
"The Drake Equation" follows what happens after a mysterious signal reaches the Earth from outer space. In order to prevent a breakdown of law and order, the world's governments create a Space Intelligence Agency to cover up news of the signal. The cover-up causes observatories and scientific institutions to shut down, as a campaign of subterfuge and disinformation is launched. However, word leaks out, and a number of people take matters into their own hands, including a mid-level government agent who allies himself with discredited scientists and hackers in order to save the world.
Andy Briggs, who wrote the recent Tarzan novel reboot and whose television credits include "Ghost Town" and "Dark Relic," wrote the pilot for "The Drake Equation."
Also read: Tracking Transmedia
The real-time digital narrative will encourage further viewer immersion, with leaks to found footage, time-sensitive clues and covert files among other features being offered to the audience.
“Today’s audiences expect nothing less than a totally immersive and interactive viewing experience that is also narrative and character driven,” Kring said of the new project. “With 'The Drake Equation,' we’ve taken the classic alien invasion genre and completely reinvented it.”
Sonar Entertainment CEO Stewart Till said that the new project's "gripping and absorbing production," coupled with its "groundbreaking interactive elements," will take viewers "beyond the conventional," leading to a "truly innovative, original and surprising."