Mindshare and NBC develop online Heroes spin-off

by Staff, Brand Republic 11-Nov-08, 09:15

NEW YORK - Mindshare Entertainment has helped develop an online micro-series of NBC's US drama 'Heroes', sponsored by telecoms company Sprint and created with the participation of fans.

'Heroes: Destiny' follows a new superhero character who was created via a series of polls by fans of the series.

More than a million votes were cast, which let viewers choose the gender, name, special powers and other features of the new hero.

The result is a character called Santiago, who lives in Lima and works as a mechanic. He will be played by Columbian born Roberto Urbina.

The first of four episodes of 'Heroes: Destiny' debuted last night and the next three will be released one by one on consecutive Monday nights -- the day that 'Heroes' screens on NBC in the US.

The episodes will be available to watch on NBC.com, via the US mobile network Sprint and on Hulu, the video streaming site that is owned by NBC and News Corp.

It won't be available to viewers outside the US.

Barbara Blangiardi, senior vice-president of creative partnerships and innovation at NBC Universal, said: "We developed this campaign directly with Mindshare Entertainment as not only a great way to engage the fans with their favourite show but as an innovative project that connected Sprint's marketing objectives seamlessly with our content, enhancing the overall viewing experience."

'Heroes' is NBC's biggest prime-time show but ratings have been falling, in spite of attempts to get the series back on track.

Yesterday the New York Times reported that two of the show's writers, Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander, had been fired.

With much of the third series already filmed, it might be too late for any new writers to make much of an impact on the storylines.

Comments

MM - 11/11/2008

I think Santiago's power will be the ability to jump over sharks whilst water-skiing. Having said that, last night's episode was actually pretty good \(although the fact that it was essentially an episode from the first season plays a huge factor in that).