It’s a good thing Howard Webster found that old screenplay. Webster, publisher of artsy movie industry photo-mag Factory, had written the bare bones of The Many Worlds Of Jonas Moore back in 1996 but filed the script away, until it fell out of a crate during a house move last year. After having the idea laughed at by many would-be showbiz financiers, Webster decided to produce the rediscovered drama online anyway - and now that it’s been optioned for TV by MGM, Webster, who makes the show in his back garden, says he’s found the template for how web-based entertainment can rejuvenate British television...

“I think Jonas Moore is an online trailblazer,” Webster said. “It’s allowed us to circumvent, with a franchisable IP, all the traditional routes that you’d have to go through. Apart from Doctor Who in this country, where do you take a sci-fi drama to? For the TV mandarins, sci-fi is a poor relation to drama proper - Jonas Moore would never have seen the light of day if I’d taken that in at the development stage. But now we can demonstrate it has a colossal fan base; it allowed people like me to have a platform.”

—What’s it all about? Starring Bond actor Colin Salmon, the Matrix-style Moore apes classic sci-fi comic books by mixing still photos, animations and music, designed for episodic distribution to iPods. Webster: “I was looking at an iPod and thought the screen reminded me of a comic book cell. I thought the iPod was going to be the fastest selling device in the world; if you could do a comic book for free you would have something big.”

—Independent production: With a four-man production team that has used Webster’s back garden as a studio and a London Starbucks as an office, Moore is a typically tiny indie effort and has so far output only two preview videos, but Factory has encouraged those previews to be mashed up and spread online, creating plenty of buzz amongst sci-fi fans and generating 2.2 million views. The crew has spent this summer shooting and has 40 percent of images - some 1,500 - for the entire trilogy in the can (scenes comprise comic-like still photos of real actors).

Webster hopes to start publishing the show as five-minute online webisodes from November: “In the winter it will be a perfect thing for people on their iPods. It’s a perfect little bus ride thing.” Moore will be also be part-generated by fans, releasing raw blue-screen footage for viewer edits and encouraging unsigned bands to score episodes. “We wanted people to nick it and put it on file sharing sites because that creates an audience - that’s something people like the music industry don’t seem to understand.”

—Brand sponsorship: Webster approached media agencies for production funding, but found only obstruction from traditional media types grappling with the digital world: “They treated us so badly, one of the rudest just laughed at me and thought it was completely ridiculous - they didn’t want us anywhere near their brands.” So Webster took funding upon himself, writing over 300 pitches, and emerged with sponsorship from Triumph Motorcycles.

—From web to TV and back: MGM’s interest is down entirely to Webster’s determination to use the web as a production testing ground, proving wrong his earlier detractors. The likes of Factory and Eqal, producers of LonelyGirl15 and KateModern, are showing that, increasingly, the web can be used as the first channel for creative new drama formats, while TV comes second. Bebo/SPTI’s Sofia’s Diary recently began airing on Fiver and KateModern is showing on Virgin Atlantic flights, for example…

Studio options don’t necessarily guarantee ideas’ flight from the drawing board, but Webster says a US/UK TV co-production is “highly likely”, with him acting as executive producer alongside Stargate owner MGM. The TV show and web comic will remain separate but interlinked: “I’m keeping the digital online rights separate from the TV series because I wanted to keep it indie and cool and keep the community going. I’ve been working on the TV pilots and its going to be a real reboot with a big plot twist in it that isn’t in the graphic novel. The web graphic novel is going to be the original story, fans will get to see the back-story online, just like Dark Knight is informed by all the old Batman comics.”

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