Afterworld

There was a post on Wonderland about a new animated series called "Afterworld" that had been picked up by Sony for distribution across multiple platforms. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony will distribute the series in many formats: two minute episodes for mobile viewing as well as longer episodes for traditional media. Intrigued, I checked out the three that are now available on YouTube (1, 2, 3) . In the future episodes will appear on Afterworld TV (although right now there only appears to be a link to Bud TV, which is where the episodes will premiere).

The story is a typical post-apocalyptic one with a bit of a slant (a mystery). Russell Shoemaker, a man who sells technology in Seattle, flies cross country to an important meeting in New York. On the morning of the meeting he wakes up and finds that absolutely nothing works, the elevator, the telephone, all of it appears non-functional. More importantly, everyone else is missing (or are they?). There are no bodies, the people are just gone (to where, who knows? - or maybe, to when?).

The rehashed press releases one can find on the web are bereft of information, but I did find some more info on Variety, Brandweek, and most importantly, an interview with the creator, Brent Friedman, on Comicon. His reasons for starting the project are interesting, as he says he was quite sick of the constraints found in the TV industry. This quote makes me laugh:

We’re creating digital crack. If you don’t get your fix every day, you will get some nasty withdrawals.

It could be Lost all over again, but in a much more compact format. The opportunity for fan participation in this experiment seems fantastic.

And maybe it's just me, but there's been a lot of these post-apocalyptic fantasies lately (and I do believe they are fantasies). Of course there was the machinima episode "The Days After" (see my previous post). Children of Men, by Alfonso Cuarón, about a world where no more children are born, and a book I finished a few months ago by Octavia Butler (Parable of the Sower). Any other recent events/fiction/film/media that I'm missing?

BTW, there is a MMOG called Afterworld. I do not know if it is related to this animated series or not.