Everyone’s favorite puppet cowboy, Tom Hanks, is working with Playtone and Reliance Entertainment on a new web series called Electric City (logo not shown). According to the AP, the show is about a “seemingly peaceful city situated in a post-apocalyptic world” and each episode will be three or four minutes long. The shows will have a socially conscious message including conservation and energy issues. This is Yahoo’s first scripted program and it will be available through multiple devices in multiple languages. Hanks will appear as a character.
Quoth the AP : “On the surface, the Electric City is utopia and under the surface, Electric City is secrets and heavy-handed state control,” says Erin McPherson, vice president and head of original programming at Yahoo. “What we found really compelling is that this is perfect for a highly digital audience, a lean-forward audience who likes to utilize the medium of the Internet.”
It’s interesting to watch Yahoo move into a different medium here and here’s hoping Hanks and his animations will make it a better year for the beleaguered company.
