Michael Eisner and Robin Cook think small

Not only is the budget, cast and crew bigger this time, but “Foreign Body” is also tied in to the launch of a book of the same name by bestselling author Robin Cook, the author of “Coma,” who is a sort of don of medical thriller writers. Cook supplied a story outline and Big F filled in the beats, dialogue and scantily clad actresses. The idea is that the 50-episode prequel will attract an audience, then immediately after the 50th episode, the book will hit the shelves and the story will continue.

Both Eisner and Cook’s publisher, the Penguin Group, see it as a pioneering collaboration between two media that haven’t yet found much common ground. Perhaps, they say, Cook’s fans will be drawn online to see his stories in a new form, and maybe some kids who see the edgy Web series will buy the book. Hey, sounds good on paper.

“It’s experimental,” said Eisner, who has shifted his mogulvision onto the online world. With the Web, “there’s no proven strategy, yet that’s as absolutely fundamental as the strategy of broadcast or cable television, or the movie theater.”

Still, Eisner said he was determined that the Web would be “the biggest space ever” for entertainment, and though a statement like that may ring of Gold Rush hysteria, his plumbing of the Web is very methodical. The online shows his company Tornante has produced have been modestly budgeted and varied in theme and approach. “Prom Queen,” a high school murder mystery, was 90 seconds per episode, while “The All for Nots,” a mockumentary about a traveling rock band, is more like seven minutes. “Foreign Body,” racy as it may be, is driven by the topical issue of deteriorating healthcare.

If you think about it, creating a growing slate of bite-size series becomes a way for Eisner to fire hundreds of low-cost spaghetti strands at the wall and see what sticks. There’s not enough advertiser interest yet to support high budget content, but if he can figure out the contours of the medium early enough. . . .

Via LAtimes