If the likes of Amazon and Netflix were once the hottest port of call for creative types looking to launch projects, now it seems that YouTube is trying to muscle in on the action. The company's YouTube Red subscription service has Dwayne Johnson, Doug Liman and Dan Harmon all working on shows.
Johnson's contribution is called Lifeline. It's a sci-fi action thriller about a clandestine insurance company that has a unique service: it sends agents 33 days into the future to prevent its clients' accidental deaths. The best of the best it has to offer is Charlie Hooks, who has never lost a save... Until one case changes his life. The planned series is a co-production of Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions and Studio 71 and will see Corridor Digital's Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer in the director's chair(s). There's no word yet on whether Johnson himself will appear before the cameras for this one, but he made the announcement about the show in typically effusive fashion on twitter.
Then there's Liman, who has found a venue to continue the Jumper story, albeit taking the third novel in Steven Gould's series Impulse as the jumping-off point (pun intended) for a series instead of a new film. Jeffrey Lieber is writing the pilot for the show, which finds a 16-year-old longing to break free of her quaint small town. When a local drug dealer attacks her, she discovers an ability to teleport, and learns that there are people who might be interested in her powers for all the wrong reasons. "Steven Gould’s sequel novel to Jumper, Impulse fully realises the dynamic potential of this amazing franchise and I’m excited to have the large canvas of YouTube to bring it to life,” says Liman, who is attached to direct and produce the pilot for the planned show for Universal Cable Productions and YouTube.
Finally, we have Harmon, the veteran of Community who also co-created madcap cartoon Rick And Morty. He's producing a new sitcom set in the world of eSports, which will star Dan Avidan and Arin Hanson, who have already established themselves on YouTube with their Game Grumps channel. Created by Michele Morrow and Jesse Cox, it'll follow the misadventures of a group of eSports players trying to reach the top in the competitive world of gaming. "We’re excited to be the ones finally bringing video game content to YouTube," says Harmon in typically dry style.
All the shows should be on the service next year.