Twilight Zone coming back as an “interactive series” from CBS and Interlude Studios.
Ken Levine will write and direct the pilot.
This could be interesting. Some of my favorite episodes would work well as an interactive adventure. “You’re an astronaut on who just landed on this distant planet…”, that right there can be a horror story, hard sci-fi, pure fantasy, or just action depending on what the player does.
I think the 80s TZ is pretty good, and it proved that the right creative talent could recapture some of the old TZ magic and put it in a more modern setting. Maybe these guys could do the same.
Austin Walker weighs in: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/ken-levine-to-write-and-direct-pilot-of-new-intera/1100-5436/
…
I’m not saying that smart interactive moviemaking can’t be done, but creators will need to overcome the allure of gimmicky filmmaking to develop a new set of techniques for the medium if they want to make something beyond novelty. Look at something like interactive cartoon Charlie Got Fired, which gets laughs from randomness more than careful joke construction. Mad libs are fun, but I’m not sure they’re what I’m looking for when I turn on a comedy show. Even in the interactive Dylan video, I find myself eventually moving past the novelty of channel-flipping so that I can focus on the either the classic footage of Dylan performing or the Danny Brown lip synch, which is produced like a traditional music video, incorporating elements of the beat and lyrics into the visuals.
…
Oh, not Cheers Ken Levine. Bummer.
When movies first started being made they were filmed as if they were stage plays. It took a while for directors to create the film vocabulary that everyone uses when they make movies.
I expect the same needs to happen with interactive things like this Twilight Zone project and even with virtual reality devices. At first the content creators will be stuck in the tried and true movie and game way of doing things. It’s probably going to take an outsider, someone with no background in movies or games, to figure out how to use the technology to its full potential. Levine will be very tempted to simply port his gamestyle over, that’s not going to generate anything notable though.