ZWICK, HERSKOVITZ TO DISTRIBUTE 'QUARTERLIFE' VIA MYSPACE. CREATE OWN SOCIAL-NETWORKING SITE (VAR, BW, USA)

By Nancy Vialatte

Producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz are undertaking an ambitious new-media project that will see them revive the onetime ABC pilot "Quarterlife" and distribute it via MySpace, as well as create their own social-networking site.

Variety, USA Today and Business Week all have a take on the effort noting that the duo are now two of the most established Hollywood producers to tackle and Internet-only project.

The pair will produce and variously write and direct episodes of the show, which centers on twentysomethings grappling with life and love in Chicago.

Along with the TV project, Herskovitz and Zwick will launch Quarterlife.com, a social-networking site that will bring together the 18- to 34-year-olds around topics ranging from career to romance to the arts.

"This come from a long-standing frustration with where the business of television has gone in the last 10 years," Herskovitz told Variety. "Ed and I have a great interest in being independent, and for several years, we've realized the Internet offers that possibility."

"When Ed and I did 'My So-Called Life' and 'thirtysomething,' the network barely gave us any notes," Herskovitz said. "Now I have friends tell me that the network tells them what color to make the walls," Herskovitz told Variety.

A total of 36 episodes, each running about eight minutes, will be made available to MySpace for a 24-hour window in which it can run the show. After that, will be a window for Quarterlife.com as well as possible distribution on sites such as YouTube and iTunes. The first episode will debut on November 11.

Sponsors are being lined up to handle the ad-supported streams.

The series, which tells the story of twentysomething writers, actresses, and dancers trying to break into show business, is being trumpeted as the first "network quality" show to be produced specifically for the Web. By that, the producers mean it won't be cheap to make�far more than the estimated $5,000 a pop it cost to produce Michael Eisner's Prom Queen, itself considered higher in quality than much online fare. (BW)

How much more? The production tab will probably run higher than $80,000 an installment, based on Herskovitz' estimate that each 48-minute episode will cost somewhere north of $500,000. Each episode will then be divided into six installments to be distributed online. (BW)

For the pair, the move is a gamble that the added creative control will be worth the tradeoff in budgets. Herskovitz acknowledged that while budgets will run higher than with most Web-original projects, they will come in lower than on similar TV productions. (VAR)

The "Quarterlife" concept was born three years ago when ABC ordered a pilot for the show dubbed "1/4life," which told the story of the twentysomethings, including a magazine editor who gets in hot water when she blogs about her co-workers. Disney's Touchstone TV and duo's Bedford Falls banner produced. ABC never picked up the show, and the project was thought dead. (VAR)

Herskovitz and Zwick have now retooled the concept with the blog element only one of many subplots; the many characters now include filmmakers, bartenders and geeks. "It's really an ensemble drama," said Herskovitz, "in the manner of 'thirtysomething' or 'My So-Called Life' " -- shows he and Zwick exec produced.

Bitsie Tulloch will replace Shiri Appleby as the lead while Zwick and Herskovitz are in the process of lining up writers and directors; Herskovitz directed, and the pair co-wrote the first hour.

Pair could mine the Quarterlife.com site for potential writers and ideas for the show and will also dip their toes into the user-generated model by making scripts and episodes available on the site for suggestions and mashups. (VAR)

For MySpace, "Quarterlife" offers the possibility of added buzz and a boost to the original-entertainment unit, which has found itself battling with a number of videocentric new-media companies. (VAR)

The �quarterlife� deal comes days after MySpace's agreement to team up with newly launched independent Web producer My Damn Channel. It has also inked other high-end content deals lately, including getting short "minisode" versions of classic TV shows such as �The Jeffersons� from Sony and programming from sports leagues like the National Basketball Association. In July, the social network also signed Dark Horse Comics to create its own channel of online comic books.

"At the outset, MySpace was a blank canvas for our users," MySpaceTV.com General Manager Jeff Berman told Business Week. "What we're doing now is giving some of the best creative folks we can find a blank canvas to create the kinds of content that a MySpace user wants." Herskovitz and Zwick, Berman points out, "have Emmys on their desk."

Getting some of those people on board has forced MySpace to make concessions. Herskovitz says the News Corp. unit was initially uneasy about his company's plan to have its own social networking site, quarterlife.com. The potential competitor could lure folks from MySpace to a separate site where Herskovitz and Zwick will have links to classes and other tools to help young artists break into show business. "I'm sure they didn't want folks to leave, but we eventually found a compromise where they'd have their own quarterlife site and we'd have ours," Herskovitz says. "And the viewers will go where the viewers want to go." In addition, MySpace won't own the content, and it will be exclusive for only a day before it can be shown on quarterlife.com, says Herskovitz. (BW)

What Myspace folks are counting on, however, is keeping folks on their site long enough to sell plenty of ads. Those folks currently stick around an average of more than three hours a month, about 20 minutes more than Facebook. Moreover, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has big plans for MySpace as an advertising vehicle, and has said that the unit that owns MySpace will be profitable this year and generate more than $1 billion in revenue next year with "margins well above 20%." (BW)

And MySpace will almost certainly get calls from agents for other high-powered creative types, figures Herskovitz, who says consolidation in the old media world means that traditional TV networks today produce their own shows and rarely turn to outsiders. "A few years ago there were 40 independent TV companies in Hollywood; now there are zero," says Herskovitz. "MySpace is a distribution platform with no controls. We just produce, and it gets a huge audience." (BW)

ZWICK, HERSKOVITZ TO DISTRIBUTE 'QUARTERLIFE' VIA MYSPACE. CREATE OWN SOCIAL-NETWORKING SITE (VAR, BW, USA)

By Nancy Vialatte

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