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It's time to talk about Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," one of the most enduring novels in English literature. It is a tale so timeless that countless adaptations — both official and not-so-official — have been made, approaching the source material from all sorts of perspectives. Apart from inspiring cinematic adaptations, Austen's novel has also led to a world of associated stories, including Janet Aylmer's bestselling "Darcy's Story" and the more recent "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," which blends period drama with ultra-violent zombie-horror tropes.

Due to the sheer breadth of adaptations, discerning which one is the "best" can certainly be tricky. For starters there's the mix of faithful adaptations versus those loosely inspired by the 1813 novel, such as the Bollywood-style "Bride & Prejudice" or the Emmy-winning "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries." For the sake of simplicity, let's stick to straightforward adaptations, which firmly situate themselves within the novel's text and...

The Emmy race just got a bit more spicy.

Three popular YouTube web series have found their content creators taking a chance on themselves, which could significantly impact the Emmy race in some categories. The spicy chicken wing interview series “Hot Ones,” hosted by Sean Evans, has successfully petitioned to be included in the outstanding talk series category. It will compete against late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert.

Created by Chris Schonberger and produced by First We Feast, “Hot Ones” has garnered over three billion views since its debut in 2015. With three seasons airing per calendar year, seasons 21-23, totaling 36 episodes, all fall within the Emmy eligibility window from June 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024. The show has featured celebrity guests like John Mulaney, Sydney Sweeney and Jamie Dornan, and has scored massive viewership on episodes with Jennifer Lawrence (15 million), Conan O’Brien (9.5 million), Stephen Curry (8.2 million) and *Nsync (6.7 million). Its...

Technologists Todd Terrazas, Max Einhorn, Mike Gioia and Ian Eck have posed a challenge to nine up-and-coming filmmakers: create short films using generative AI in only 48 hours. The Cinema Synthetica filmmaking competition is the first of its kind, founded in hopes of demonstrating the potential of AI tools to influence the future of filmmaking.

The completion is part of the AI on the Lot conference, a one-day summit to be held next week in downtown Los Angeles where Hollywood creatives can collaborate with those at the forefront of artificial intelligence. The nine Cinema Synthetica participants were carefully selected for the challenge and then divided into teams of three. After two full days of work, the films will be presented at AI on the Lot on May 16 to a panel of judges that will include such industry insiders as Einhorn, Jeff Clanagan, Kathleen McCaffrey, Momo Wang, Rachel Joy Victor and Jackee Chang.

The Burned Over District: "After a fatal car accident causes him to lose his wife. Will is left to pick up the pieces in his new small-town home. The grieving man soon becomes overwhelmed by a dark presence that surrounds him, and he soon discovers that the seemingly quiet town he and his wife fell in love with is hiding a very terrifying dark secret. Now he must find a way to overcome his grief and fight back against the darkness that has consumed the town and its people before it consumes his soul.

The Burned-Over District refers to a large area in Western and Central New York. During the 19th century religious revivals and the formation of new religious movements took place during the Second Great Awakening. During this time evangelical religious fervor swept the country, and found its way to the Burned-Over District via the Erie Canal. From...

If you think you know the tale of the Headless Horseman, think again. Because you’ve never seen a Headless Horseman tale quite like the one that Shipwrecked Comedy has created. Headless, premiering today, is the latest series from the production company who, in their words, are “committed to creating dynamic, funny, and intelligent content for the digital spaces and beyond.” Founded in the summer of 2013 by Sean Persaud and his twin sister, Sinead (The Only Podcast Left – Daybreak), the group has produced numerous shows that marry both history and literature in humorous, engaging ways, ranging from a Clue-inspired murder mystery dinner party to a noir film. Its newest offering is a twist on the famous Legend of Sleepy Hollow story that has enthralled and haunted audiences for decades, starring both Persaud siblings as well as Mary Kate Wiles, Joanna Sotomura (Barry), Curt Mega (Glee), Krystina Arielle (Star Wars: ...

Katya Martín, the star of ABC’s “Promised Land,” has landed the lead role in the upcoming indie feature “The Death That Awaits.”

Martín will play a drifter in search of answers to a mystery from her past, who takes on a job in the countryside looking after a sick teen. She soon realizes the teen is undergoing a mysterious transformation that her parents will do anything to stop. Production is targeting a spring start in Los Angeles. No distributor is presently attached.

The project comes from director and executive producer Richard J. Lee, part of the creative team behind “Los Pollos Hermanos Employee Training,” spinoff shorts of the hit AMC drama “Better Call Saul.” The videos went viral, and nabbed an Emmy for best short form comedy or drama series in 2017.

The script is from Rachel Kiley, who previously worked as a co-producer on The CW’s musical dramedy...

Exclusive: Kate Rorick, the Emmy winner who currently serves as executive producer and showrunner of the IMDb TV series Leverage: Redemption, has signed with APA for representation.

Rorick is a TV writer, producer and novelist who has also worked on series including Hulu’s Ghost Rider, TNT’s The Librarians, and Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger. She won her Emmy in 2015 for co-executive producing Emma Approved, the winner of Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media – Original Interactive Program. She also served as a consulting producer on popular web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and co-wrote the novels based on it with Bernie Su.

Rorick is also a bestselling author whose 2020 novel, Little Wonders, offers a glimpse into the high pressures of modern motherhood. She has penned two additional historical romance series under the nom de plume, Kate Noble.

Rorick continues to be represented by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Jackoway Tyerman, and Jane Rotrosen Agency for publishing.

The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Artificial is coming back for a third season on Twitch. The new season of the sci-fi series will be dubbed Artificial: Remote Intelligence which, like the title suggests, is a remote production, fitting in with the current global landscape. The new season will include 12 two-hour episodes that will premiere May 21 at 6pm Pt/9pm Et on the video streaming platform.

From writer/producer Bernie Su and author Evan Mandery, the third season of Artificial will continue to push the creative envelope, adding the challenge of remote production to new capabilities for live audience interaction. Artificial: Remote Intelligence will follow a brand new artificial intelligence being guided by an idealistic young scientist named Elle on a live-streamed journey to become human. World-building episodes will be interspersed into the unfolding drama to involve the community in production as well as storytelling decisions.

“Artificial delivers an immersive, interactive...

Kayti Burt Feb 26, 2020

With Emma and Sanditon making waves (seaside resort pun!), we're listing up the best screen adaptations of Jane Austen's work.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every Jane Austen novel must be adapted an infinite amount of times and we will be grateful for all of them.

There have been a lot of adaptations of Jane Austen's six major novels and some of her other works, including the recently-released Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy. These are the ones we recommend watching.

Best Pride and Prejudice Adaptations

Easily the most adapted of Jane Austen's works, Pride and Prejudice is a foundational work in the broader romantic comedy genre and in so much of our mainstream storytelling. People tend to have opinions about which of the P&p adaptations are the best. (Who is the best Elizabeth? Who is the best Darcy? Which is the most faithful? Does it matter?...

Ashley Clements, the powerhouse actress who starred in Hank Green and Bernie Su’s Emmy- and Streamy-winning YouTube web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, has successfully funded a new creative project.

She and her team raised $31,560 on Kickstarter to produce 10-episode series A Tale Told by an Idiot. Pitched as “Shakespeare meets Silicon Valley,” the series is a modern retelling of Macbeth where the titular and main characters run an indie virtual reality game company.

Clements is the series’ co-creator, writer, producer, and lead actress. She’ll play Beth, the modernized Lady Macbeth — who, as in the original play, may be the story’s real star after all…

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

Exclusive: As people of color and marginalized continue to work to move the needle when it comes to equity and inclusion in Hollywood, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (Cape) is doing its part for the culture with the eighth annual Cape New Writers Fellowship. Today Cape announced the emerging writers for the professional development program and unveiled some of the top industry players who will serve as mentors and speakers for the fellowship co-founded and co-chaired by Steve Tao and Leo Chu.

As the landscape of authentic representation in film and TV continues to move forward, the industry is realizing that audiences crave diversity and inclusion — and it starts on the page. Graduates of the Fellowship have been staffed on every major broadcast network, premium cable channel, and streaming platform. This year, Cape plans to continue to diversify...

We’re not going to bother trying to play it cool: This week’s series is downright awesome. Artificial is notable, yes, because it's helmed by Emmy winner Bernie Su (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and co-created by prolific author Evan Mandery, but it's extremely notable because it's the first ever show to air on Twitch where the viewing audience can interact directly with characters in real time, as the show is on.

Here's how it works: Episodes air live, with actors in front of the camera in real time, acting and reacting to audience input. Input usually comes in the form of questions and polls, where viewers can mold the outcome of the show by voting. Outcomes of the polls sometimes have relatively small impacts on Artificial’s direction — for instance, in the most recent episode, the main character, artificial intelligence Sophie (Tiffany Chu), asks viewers to help her choose a favorite color.

Geek & Sundry and Alpha, Legendary Digital Networks’ interactive streaming platform, have acquired the upcoming sci-fi series, Sona. Created by Ashley Clements – the fan favorite actress from the Emmy-winning series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party – through production company The Jigsaw Ensemble, Sona adds to the sci-fi offering of the entertainment platform’s lineup of original shows and content. Exclusive …

The post Geek & Sundry Acquires Thrilling Sci-Fi Drama Sona to Air on Alpha appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net. Copyrights 2008-2018 - Horrornews.net...

Originally started as a wildly successful Kickstarter project, Geek & Sundry and Alpha, Legendary Digital Networks’ interactive streaming platform, have now acquired the upcoming sci-fi series, Sona. Created by Ashley Clements – the fan-favorite actress from the Emmy-winning series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party – through production company The Jigsaw Ensemble, Sona adds to the sci-fi offering of the entertainment platform’s lineup of original shows and content. Exclusive to Alpha members, Sona is a tale of adventure and hardship featuring a strong female lead with surprising plot twists. Sona’…...

Digital studio Geek & Sundry, which was founded by veteran YouTube star Felicia Day, is set to launch a brand new sci-fi series titled Sona on Alpha -- a streaming service owned by Geek & Sundry's parent company Legendary Digital Networks.

Sona was created by and stars Ashley Clements, who notably headlined 2012's The Lizzie Bennet Diaries -- the first-ever web series to take home an Emmy. Sona is set in a future where aliens are no longer welcome on earth, and will follow a Space Corps officer (Clements) who was formerly married to an alien and is now trapped in a malfunctioning escape pod. The series will use flashbacks to recount the decisions that led to her isolation, and in the process touch on pertinent social issues including mental health, immigration, and betrayal.

Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.

Christopher Sean has to decided to leave NBC soap opera Days of our Lives and the role of Paul Narita. Sean taped his final episode on May 25 but will continue airing until fall due to the show's advanced taping schedule.

Sean joined Days as Paul in November 2014. His credits include Hawaii Five-0, The Bay and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

The actor already has a new gig lined up: He announced in April that he had been cast in the new animated Disney series, Star Wars Resistance.

Kayti Burt Dec 24, 2018

The Den of Geek Book Club is a place to geek out about our favorite science fiction, fantasy, and horror books.

Join the Den of Geek Book Club!

Featuring book giveaways and exclusive author interviews, this is a place to recommend, discuss, and obsess over the best current and classic fantasy, science fiction, and horror books.

Check out our list of Den of Geek's Best Fiction Books of 2018, then join us in discussing our latest pick...

December/January: Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

An anthology novel of six stories that explore how genetic engineering will affect the human race moving forward, this young adult-minded book from Arwen Elys Dayton is the perfect blend of intimate, character-driven coming-of-age tale and deeply-curious science fiction classic.

The stories begin in the near future, but continually bring the reader further into our future, extrapolating out how our...

After appearing in multiple award-winning web series, Ashley Clements is now adding some behind-the-camera work to her resume. Through Kickstarter, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries star has raised "finishing funds" for Sona, an eight-episode sci-fi web series.

Sona will star Clements as a military officer who must survive in an escape pod in open space. Brendan Bradley, a veteran actor with nearly a decade of web series experience under his belt, will direct Sona and will co-star as the protagonist's alien husband. At the time of this post, the project has raised more than $21,000, which is enough capital to ensure that all of its nine episodes will be funded. 

Between 2012 and 2013, Clements portrayed Elizabeth Bennet in 100 episodes of the Emmy-award winning series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Her portrayal of the Pride and Prejudice heroine earned her a Streamy Award win in 2014. Later, she and Bradley teamed up as the romantic leads of Non-Transferable,...

Project Name: Fictional Fares

Asking For: $54,750 through Seed & Spark

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $778

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 28

Description: The literary web series genre, which includes shows like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved, and Carmilla, is full of sharp, digital-savvy adaptations of classic works. Over the past five years, it seems as if every book from your high school lit class has been made into a vlog, and the time is right for two creators with extensive experience in that genre to offer a refreshing take on it. Jenni Powell and Paula Rhodes have turned to the internet at large in hopes of funding a nine-episode web series titled Fictional Fares.

The star of Fictional Fares is James Brent Isaacs (Emma Approved, Social Medium), who will portray a rideshare driver in a world filled with pop culture characters. The series...

Project Name: The Wayward Guide For The Untrained Eye

Asking For: $100,000 through Kickstarter

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $59,738

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 11

Description: This past spring, the podcast S-Town found viral success with its profile of an outsized Alabaman. Now, an upcoming web series is looking to take the rural, gothic appeal of that show, add in supernatural elements, pick up some laughs, and end up with a series that will have its own unique appeal. Corey Lubowich, Brian Rosenthal, and Joey Richter -- known collectively as the Tin Can Bros -- are behind The Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye, a work of fiction that will follow a pair of podcast hosts as they uncover the secret of a small town.

The hosts of Wayward Guide's podcast will be portrayed by Mary Kate Wiles (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and Steve Zaragoza...

A rom-com script featuring the former Lizzie Bennet, revived by an unlikely but true Buzzfeed story, and partly financed by Turkey’s tourism board is hoping its good fortune continues to transfer today as it helps launch a new distribution platform delivering 4K-resolution streams through a single click on social-media sites.

Brendan Bradley wrote the script for Non-Transferable several years ago, creating a fairly traditional take on a rom-com with an unlikely “meet cute." The protagonist buys non-refundable tickets for a big overseas trip to surprise her boyfriend on their anniversary. He, however, breaks up with her, leaving the protagonist with a broken heart and non-transferable tickets in someone else’s name. She advertises for another guy with the same name and, well, you can probably guess how the rest unfolds.

Except that seemingly everything else about the film has been anything but traditional. First, that unlikely setup in Bradley...

Today, Fullscreen, in association with Epic Robot TV, has announced the return of the beloved series “The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy” for an 18-episode third season. Set in the magical town of Neverland, Ohio, the series follows Peter Pan (Kyle Walters), a man-child cartoonist in his late 20s, and Wendy Darling (Paula Rhodes) as adults living in Neverland surrounded by their motley crew of family and friends. Pan struggles between maintaining his youth and losing a link to his best friend and longtime crush.

Read More: Indie Auteur David Lowery to Direct Live-Action ‘Peter Pan’ Adaptation for Disney

The series was created by Kyle Walters and Shawn deLoache, who also serves as the series’ writer. It co-stars Percy Daggs III (“Veronica Mars”) and Jim Beaver (“Deadwood”) and is produced by Walters, deLoache, Rhodes and Jenni Powell (“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”).

Launched in April 2016, Fullscreen is a commercial-free subscription...

Ever since The Lizzie Bennet Diaries became a smash hit, we've seen a number of web series that adapt classic literature into a vlog format. One of the latest entries in that categories is The Cate Morland Chronicles, and it adds a twist to the genre by turning one of Jane Austen's characters into a pop culture geek.

The source material for Cate Morland is Northanger Abbey, which was written by Austen around 1799 and published posthumously in 1817. The protagonist of the book is Cate Morland, who has a specific affinity for Gothic novels; in the web series version (where she is portrayed by Madeline Thatcher), that trait of hers is represented as a general love for genre fiction in all its shapes and sizes.

Cate Morland's decision to depict its protagonist as a modern nerd is what sets it apart from other Austen-inspired vlogs. Many of those shows translate...

Project Name: The Pantheon

Asking For: $2,100 on Kickstarter

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $1,762

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 22

Description: "What if the Greek gods had to do everything they did back then -- control the weather, make people fall in love -- but if they're gonna do that now, the easiest way to do that is with apps?" That is the question creator Dan Fletcher uses to introduce his new series The Pantheon, which is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter.

The Pantheon will take place at an app development startup whose employees are modern-day versions of famous Greek gods. The show's two primary characters are Zeus (Beau Bowker) and Hades (Laura Lee Walsh), who will feud for control of the company. The gods have had their personalities updated to match The Pantheon's millennial setting. Zeus, for example, is an egotistical brogrammer, while...

Have you ever wondered what could have been? What if Key West seceded from the mainland? If the state of Wyoming ended up in the middle of Pennsylvania? If freed slaves were given the state of Mississippi after the Civil War? Perhaps you would like a Brief Explanation as to how Budapest became the Taco Capital of the World? Or, if you prefer, there is one story that is a fight to the death between the governor of North Alaska, Sarah Palin, and the billionaire orange haired governor of South Alaska…

You can wonder all of these no longer with ‘Altered States of the Union: What America Could Be’; An American alternate history anthology (say that five times fast) that features a varied and fantastic line up of first time authors, New York Times best selling authors, and Hugo and Nebula award winning authors, coming all together with their own...

"I'm not spying! I'm listening." It's hard to not think of The Sound and the Shadow as an indie version of other classic "listening" thrillers like Brian De Palma's Blow Out, or The Conversation, but there's also something original about Justin Paul Miller vision.

The film about an eavestopping shut-in that finds himself unmittingly involved in a missing persons case stars Paul Miller and stars Joseph E. Murray (All My Children), Mary Kate Wiles (Squaresville, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) and Alex Anfanger (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)

[Continued ...]...

Project Name: The New Adventures of Peter + Wendy

Asking For: $50,000 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $35 -- the campaign was just launched.

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 30

Description: A web series that breathes new life into J.M. Barrie's most famous work is looking to pick up a third season. The New Adventures of Peter + Wendy, which applies a digital twist to the world of Peter Pan, has returned to Indiegogo in order to fund a new batch of episodes.

In Peter + Wendy, Kyle Walters portrays Peter, an exuberant young man who never wants to leave his hometown of Neverland, Ohio. His friend Wendy, played by Paula Rhodes, has other ideas, and the romantic tension between them has driven Peter + Wendy through a pair of charming seasons.

With its literary setup and its use of transmedia tie-ins, Peter + Wendy fits squarely...

Hello, my name is Jenni Powell and I am excited.

For those not familiar, I’ve been producing and creating in the digital media space since 2006. I started out in the fan community of lonelygirl15 (Rip Bree) and went on to work on The Guild and many other early scripted web series. I went on to produce the Emmy Award Winning The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved. I currently am a producer on The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy and an Executive Producer and Co-Creator on Adi Shankar’s Gods and Secrets. I have a very deep love and passion for what I do and the digital media space as a whole.

But I also have another love. One I keep close to my heart, but that anyone who really knows me has witnessed the great excitement and fulfillment it brings me. I have even converted some people...

A pair of digital studios are teaming up for a new web series. Astronauts Wanted, the production company founded by former MTV exec Judy McGrath, will team up with Bernie Su and David Tochterman’s Canvas Media Studios for Socio, an upcoming crime thriller.

Socio will star actress India Eisley as a social media-obsessed teenager who teams up with a detective to hunt down a serial killer. Su described Eisley’s character to The Hollywood Reporter as “a teenage sociopath who operates on social media,” so viewers should expect a darker tone, especially when compared to previous Su projects like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved.

Both Astronauts Wanted and Canvas are known for productions that use social media as a storytelling device, so their collaborative effort will naturally feature a large number of transmedia integrations. Viewers will be able to follow the main characters on Twitter and interact with them across social sites,...

The love story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy has been told again and again onscreen, and each adaptation has in its own way addressed themes of class, social etiquette and romance that Jane Austen wove into the 1813 classic, Pride and Prejudice. But now Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, in theaters Feb. 5, introduces a whole new slew of themes: the undead, for example, and martial arts and lots and lots of blood and gore. The film has Cinderella star Lily James playing Elizabeth, who in this version just happens to be leading a small army of sword-toting society women in...

Yet another metahuman has been added to the second season of The Flash, and that’s Allison Paige as little known speedster Eliza Harmon, a.k.a. Trajectory. Created in 2006, she was chosen by Lex Luthor to participate in the Everyman Project after she came to him begging to be granted superspeed. However, after suffering some issues with that, Eliza was stripped of her powers and ended up being killed in battle.

The Flash is going to be taking things in a slightly different direction, though, as The CW describes her as arriving in town intent on creating maximum chaos. Trajectory’s antics are misinterpreted as having been perpetrated by the Flash himself, and Barry must quickly uncover the mystery of who is the girl under the mask — as well as what is driving her mad desire for speed and destruction.

She’s going to be a villain then, though...

Days of Our Lives alum Allison Paige’s trajectory has led her to a plum role on The Flash.

TVLine has learned exclusively that Paige is set to guest-star on the CW hit as Eliza Harmon aka Trajectory, Central City’s first female speedster.

RelatedThe Flash Ep Talks Eobard’s Return, Barry’s Heartbreak and Harry’s Agenda

Having arrived in town intent on creating maximum chaos, Trajectory’s antics are misinterpreted as having been perpetrated by the Flash himself. Barry thus must quickly! uncover the mystery of who is the girl under the mask — as well as what is...

Barry Allen is going to be joined by another speedster pretty soon on The Flash, as Allison Paige (Days of Our Lives, Younger, Baby Daddy, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) is set to debut in episode 16 of the CW series' second season as a small screen take on Trajectory. From the sounds of the description accompanying TV Line's report, Miss Harmon is going to start out as a villain, just as she did in the comics. "Having arrived in town intent on creating maximum chaos, Trajectory’s antics are misinterpreted as having been perpetrated by the Flash himself. Barry thus must quickly! uncover the mystery of who is the girl under the mask — as well as what is driving her mad desire for speed and destruction." Of course Trajectory eventually becomes a hero in the comics, and even takes up the mantle of the Teen Titans' Kid Flash before being...

Turkish Airlines has established itself as a brand that releases high-quality, relevant videos on YouTube. Now, for its latest project, it is buying into the recent trend of feature films led by stars from the YouTube community. Turkey’s national airline is behind Non-Transferable, an upcoming film that will be led by actors known for their work in web series.

Non-Transferable stars Ashley Clements (known for her leading role in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) as Amy, a woman who plans an elaborate vacation with her boyfriend. When he dumps her, she must find another man who shares his name, in order to make use of the travel preparations she has planned. Enter Brendan Bradley, who has appeared in several web series over the past few years. Bradley plays Josh, who Amy ultimately chooses as her travel companion. Their chemistry in on full display in the film’s trailer, which can...

Cds Films recently had one if its first feature flicks Natural Born Pranksters picked up for distribution by Lionsgate. Now, the film division of the multi-channel network Collective Digital Studio is adding another title to its roster of original movies. Cds Films has started production on its newest feature starring Vine celebrity Matthew Espinosa.

Directed by Joshua Caldwell (Layover, South Beach), the untitled comedy-drama from tells the story of Jordan Jay (played by Espinosa), a teen pop star who just wants to lead a normal life. Jordan abandons his sold-out tour and runs away to a small town where he meets Emily, a girl described in a release as “a rebellious street artist who wants nothing to do with [Jordan].” Cds Films’ upcoming title also co-stars Sarah Jeffery (Shades of Blue), Tava Smiley (General Hospital), Caitlin Keats (Kill Bill: Vol 2), Lamonica Garrett (Sons of Anarchy), and Allison Paige (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries...

At the Emmy Awards, Bernie Su’s digital adaptations of Jane Austen are two for two. Emma Approved, Su’s web series version of the novel Emma, has won an Emmy Award for Original Interactive Program.

The Original Interactive Program category celebrates series that successfully link together multiple platforms, and no one accomplishes that goal better than Su. His previous Austen adaptation, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, won an Emmy 2013 thanks to its own transmedia touches. For Emma Approved, Su and his team took interactivity to another level by linking together video, social media, images, text, and music in a manner that invited fans to engage with their favorite characters. It’s an approach that impressed us, and it comes as no surprise that the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences took a shine to it as well.

Emma Approved’s Emmy win was announced as part of a press release...

Project Name: Dark Detour, Season 2: All That Glitters

Asking For: $3,031 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $3,244

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 15

Description: Dark Detour originally started as a Halloween comedy-horror story which took place across multiple platforms. Audience members can directly partake in the storytelling process by following the characters in real time on Twitter or other social media outlets. The second season of Dark Detour will continue the multi-platform format, but this time around the story will be a romantic thriller. Taking place in the days leading up to Halloween, All That Glitters will introduce audiences to a London-based wedding photographer who meets a barmaid in the western part of England, but their love eventually takes them to a place they have no hope of escaping from.

Creator Bio: Behind Dark Detour is a more than qualified team. The...

HBO has acquired U.S. rights to Leah Wolchok’s documentary Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait Of New Yorker Cartoonists, with the pic premiering on the network December 7 following an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run starting November 20 in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The pic, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, offers a window into single-panel cartoon king The New Yorker, offering up a glimpse into the process behind their creation. The pic follows cartoon editor Bob Mankoff as he sifts through hundreds of submissions and pitches every week.

Wolchok also produced her feature debut alongside Davina Pardo. Regina K. Scully, Deborah Shaffer and the late Bruce Sinofsky are executive producers and Joanna Sokolowski co-produced. Cinetic Media repped the the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

The Power/Rangers fan film and The Grey producer Adi Shankar is set to make his directorial debut alongside...

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by Ian Edginton and Robert Deas. Self Made Hero, 144 pages. $19.95 retail hardcopy; also available in electronic editions.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that I’m a huge Jane Austen fangirl. I make no apologies. I made my husband take me to the Jane Austen museum in Bath for my 40th birthday. I own every version of every Jane Austen movie made – retellings too. As a matter of facet, I collect adaptations in every form from the sublime (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Bridget Jones, Clueless) to the abusively bad (Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict is currently in my car’s CD player right now, but I’m powering through because I am not a quitter.) I’ve read Pride and Prejudice annually since I was 19 – and it’s not even my favorite Austen novel (that would be Persuasion, which I also read...

Bernie Su and Pemberley Digital’s The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will live on, but this time in another book. The story of hit web series, which garnered over 58 million views on its channel, will continue with an original book called The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, based on Lizzie’s rambunctious youngest sibling.

The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet will pick up where Lizzie Bennet left off. Now that Lizzie and Jane are out of the house, Lydia (played by Mary Kate Wiles in the web series) must take charge of her own future after being humiliated online by her ex-boyfriend. The youngest Bennet sister has matured, is working to finish her college degree, and is learning how to become an adult by figuring out who she can (and can’t) trust.

The newest addition to the Lizzie Bennet franchise will be the first book to tell the Bennet family...

Bernie Su is applying his knowledge of the online video world to a brand new venture. The creator of popular web series such as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Frankenstein, M.D., and Emma Approved has teamed up with former television executive for That ‘70s Show and president of management/consulting firm Versatility Media, David Tochterman to create Canvas Media Studios.

Canvas Media’s goal (as described in a press release) is to “develop original, scripted, and multi-platform entertainment properties for brands, publishers, and traditional media companies.” To maximize the impact of Canvas’ work for these brands, Su and Tochterman plan to utilize the power of social media integration, as well as a transmedia cross-platform storytelling method, which made Su’s past web series with Pemberley Digital studio so engaging to fans.

"Canvas is an entertainment studio that designs narratives for any and every 'canvas',” Su explained. “We're storytellers, whether we're telling an original,...

Project Name: Classic Alice

Asking For: $60,000 on Indiegogo

Amount Raised Thus Far (At Time Of Post): $22,117

Days Remaining In Campaign (At Time Of Post): 15

Description: As with many other web series inspired by The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Classic Alice takes a modern approach to classic literature. Its protagonist, Alice, is portrayed by series creator Kate Hackett and is obsessed with books. Over the course of the first 30 episodes, Alice dives into a number of famous novels and begins imitating the characters she reads, acting out their mannerisms in her own life.

The first season of Classic Alice began in 2014 and covered a number of different English class favorites, including Crime and Punishment, Macbeth, and Rip Van Winkle. Along the way, it picked up a decent-sized following and a pack of dedicated fans known as "Ocelittles."

Now, Hackett and her team are looking to #SaveAlice. Should they raise the money they are asking for,...

Ever since The Lizzie Bennet Diaries took off, we've seen a plethora of series combine YouTube vlogs with in-character social media accounts. Many of those imitators also borrow Lizzie Bennet's focus on classical lit, but there are a few interesting series applying the transmedia vlog format to an original story. The latest one to catch our eye is Son of Somerset Files, which explores a UFO mystery in the rural South.

Son of Somerset Files is created by Elizabeth Hagale and stars Rhiana Howell as Chloe, a UFO enthusiast. When Chloe receives a strange gift from her departed grandfather, she begins unraveling an otherworldly mystery and encounters unusual occurrences in her own life. Thus far, 17 episodes have been released, with nine more still to come. At the same time, Chloe shares additional updates on her Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts.

A comparable series that comes to mind is Haunting of Sunshine Girl,...

Film Picks: Just released today (January 26, 2015) is the independent short film Heat Wave with Twilight’s Kiowa Gordon and Catch Hell’s Russ Russo (making his directorial debut). The film has been released digitally on VHXKiowa Gordon (Twilight Saga’s Embry Call, SundanceTV’s The Red Road) stars in this tale of four friends who awaken to find that their reality may not be what they expected in the midst of a 2015 heat wave in La. Also starring Aaron Jaeger (TV’s Youthful Daze), Wolfgang Weber (The Magician’s Son), Jessica Andres (TV’s The Lizzie Bennet Diaries) & Russ Russo (An Act of […]...

The popularity of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries has spawned a number of imitative series that adapt classic literature in a vlog format. This week, though, we're taking a look at a lit adaptation without any gimmicks. It's called The Invisible Man, it adapts the H.G. Wells story of the same name, and it eschews modern touches in favor of polished filmmaking.

Barefoot Films, the studio behind The Invisible Man, funded their project with a 2011 Kickstarter campaign and shot it across the United States in Florida, North Carolina, and Colorado. While the original story takes place in England, Barefoot has set their version in the Rocky Mountains, where a mysterious man covered head-to-toe in clothing checks into a small-town hotel.

Viewers familiar with the source material will be familiar with all of the twists that follow, but you don't need to have read Wells' novella to appreciate this version of The Invisible Man.

Sawyer Hartman wants to try his hand at something a little scarier than his normal creations. The YouTuber and filmmaker who boasts over 1.7 million subscribers is making an anthology horror web series. According to StreamDaily, Hartman wants to create six episodes at about 20 minutes each for the first season of the currently unnamed series. He’ll release the first season episodically on his YouTube Channel, and later combine all six into a two-hour feature. He hopes to have the first season take place in a lonely farm house, with possible future seasons set in a remote hotel and hospital. Hartman plans to fund everything himself with the goal of proving the anthology style will work in the digital realm before seeking funds for further seasons. The filmmaker shouldn’t find this too hard to accomplish as the online media masses are already familiar with episodic series like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries...

Two-and-a-half months after its August 19th debut, Frankenstein M.D. has arrived at its conclusion. The web series adaptation of Frankenstein's final episode has been released, and fans of the series will know what to expect. Frankenstein M.D. was born out of a partnership between Pemberley Digital (the studio behind hits like The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved) and PBS Digital Studios, which distributed the series as its first ever scripted program. Across 24 episodes, viewers got to know Victoria Frankenstein, a gender-swapped version of Mary Shelley's infamous doctor. At the end of the series, Victoria looks to run away with her friend Eli, though her monster shows up to throw a wrench in that plan. As with all Pemberley Digital productions, Frankenstein, M.D. is accompanied by a wealth of transmedia elements. The most interesting tie-in to the final episode is an open letter from Victoria to her medical school classmates.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a person in want of a good project will adapt Pride and Prejudice-if not always to dazzling effect. The latest take, a two-part miniseries called Death Comes to Pemberley, premiered yesterday on PBS. And if there's anything P&P fans like almost as much as Austen's book, it's consuming and then critiquing the various interpretations of it. Which is why we're taking this opportunity to rank 13 different iterations of Pride & Prejudice, from the best (the 1995 miniseries starring Colin Firth is a nigh-untouchable high point) to the significantly less great. 1. Pride and Prejudice (miniseries...

In the past year, the number of YouTubers with their own book deals has shot up dramatically. Publishers have realized the purchasing power of the devoted audiences who follow their favorite personalities online, and this has opened up the literary world as an alternate revenue stream for some web video creators. One of those creators is Grace Helbig, who begins a nationwide tour for her book Grace's Guide on October 19th. Helbig will appear in bookstores in seven cities to promote Grace's Guide, which will arrive in both brick-and-mortar and online outlets on October 21st. Helbig announced her "irreverent and illustrated guide to life for anyone faced with the challenge of growing up" back in May, when it became available for preorder. The book is published by Touchstone, a Simon & Schuster imprint that also published a spin-off of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Helbig's tour comes right as the "YouTuber book...

The Streamys have spoken! Of the winners, here are seven Web series you should be watching right now! Comedy: “My Drunk Kitchen”Using only a camera, a kitchen, and substantial amounts of alcohol, Hannah “Harto” Hart has dominated homemade comedy on YouTube. “My Drunk Kitchen” chronicles Hart’s attempts to cook and explain cooking while sipping beer, rosé, or themed cocktails. Her first video, “Butter Yo Shit,” has amassed over 3 million views since 2011. Part improvised comedy and part legitimate cooking show, the series previously earned Hart best female performance in a comedy. Drama & Actress in a Drama: Ashley Clements, “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”Two centuries after “Pride and Prejudice” appeared in print, Hank Green and Bernie Su decided to give Jane Austen’s classic tale a makeover. “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” is more than just a retelling of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s entangled courtship; it uses its source...