Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment has signed a deal with Entertainment One on an ambitious new pre-apocalypse television series set in a five-year period before a massive meteor strikes the Earth.
While the plot is certainly one we’ve seen/read/heard before, the way the series plans to use the television medium is potentially innovative. See, Entertainment One is a global media distributor, which matters here because of the global scope of this show. Dubbed 5 Year, the idea is for this show to run for five seasons simultaneously throughout a number of separate international markets, doing so with what are essentially localized versions for each region. These localized versions will be set in the various countries where they are airing, and they will star characters who speak the local languages. Deadline had early word of the new agreement, reporting that Skybound and Entertainment One will co-produce with the latter company handling financing and distribution.
Essentially, there could be versions of 5 Year taking place in different countries all over the world with different characters and plots, all united by a shared coming global catastrophe. International deals are already in place for Korea, the United Kingdom, Latin America, Germany, India, Russia, and China.
“One of our biggest goals at Skybound is to elevate creators by offering them a platform to create compelling stories,” Kirkman told Deadline. “Working on 5 Year is an exceptional experience because it gives us the opportunity to see how writers and directors across the world tell different stories with the same core ingredients. We’re excited to have eOne’s expertise in global storytelling for this project.”
Entertainment One currently handles international distribution for other Skybound/Kirkman properties like The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as BatmansBookcase.
It’s a neat idea but given that “The Walking Dead” just finished two of the worst written seasons in TV history and “Fear the Walking Dead” was so awful they literally had to completely abandon the initial concept and soft-reboot the show, I’m not getting my hopes up.
Mike
POV and cultural experience of some event… could be alright, and I hope it avoids bombing. Interesting.