Zuiker Creates A 'Book Club Online'

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker looks to the future of entertainment with his first "digi-novel", Level 26: Dark Origins.

In his most recent interview with CSI Files, Zuiker explained the concept behind Level 26 and the "cyber bridges" that drive readers from the book to the internet and back again. One of the actors cast for these cyber bridges was Michael Ironside, who plays federal agent Tom Riggins. "The concept and ideas were dark, edgy and solid storytelling," Ironside told Sun Media. "Anthony's an exciting and talented guy to work with. Being on the front line of a brand new, renovated way of presenting and delivering storytelling — everything about it was intriguing. I took the material home, read it and said 'I'm in.'"

"The website is incredibly important," Zuiker explained. "It is not just a glorified home page to unlock bridges. That's the starting point. What's important about the website is that you can socially connect and make profile pages, upload other content that people can witness. You will be able to submit characters, cast members and storylines for future books."

"It's not just enough to write a great book; it's not just enough to make a great movie, it's not just enough to build a great website," he continued. "It's to be able to give people multi-experiences and a place to kind of hang their hat and give a chance to grow. That the community can take over and build to be a part of it, that is the future."

The website for the series, level26.com, was launched by social entertainment company EQAL. "Think of it like a book club online," explained EQAL co-founder Miles Beckett. "It's going to be a community for people to talk about the book and then also talk about the greater Level 26 universe." He added, "For Book 2 and Book 3 there are going to be sections of the forum featuring recurring contests, and calls to action for people to actually create their own characters and their own storylines that might actually become a part of the second and third books."

The original article is from the Edmonton Sun and Canoe.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!