Craig Brewer isn’t the first Hollywood name to jump into the web series game, but his pitch is one of the freshest. Brewer directed the indie hit Hustle & Flow, and his web series seems like it will capture some of the same sensibilities.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Brewer is creating $5 Cover as a web series for MTV Films. Set in Memphis Tenn., the series stars real-life local musicians basically playing versions of themselves. Dialog will be improvised around Brewer’s ideas taken from the musicians’ real-life experience, and each episode will feature a music performance.
$5 Cover will have 15 eight-minute episodes and will reportedly cost just $350,000 to produce. MTV will host a social-networking component that will include interactive maps to help make Memphis its own character. The idea is to then take $5 Cover to other music scenes in different cities across the country.
In a time when people are either creating sci-fi series, or thrillers that are more style than substance, it’s refreshing to see someone try something new. If done well, $5 Cover is almost a bridge between old and new media. It may have MTV, a Hollywood director and a relatively large budget for a web series — but it promises to have a soul with real locations, real music and real people.
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