Hollywood and Silicon Valley sound like impossible bedfellows. Witness Pop.com, Oxygen, Scour and the long list of other struggling, or already dead, convergence efforts.
Nevertheless, Academy Award-winning and tech-savvy actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are laying the groundwork for a company that hopes to get the integration thing right, and investors are interested.
The actors are co-founders of LivePlanet Inc., a Hollywood-based company gearing up to be a leader of what many believe will be the future of entertainment: old and new media converging in a real-time, interactive experience for a mass audience.
While LivePlanet has not officially launched, it does have a functional Web site (www.liveplanet.com) and just under 30 employees at its Hollywood office.
The company’s founders Affleck, Damon and film producers Chris Moore and Sean Bailey declined to be interviewed for this story.
A spokeswoman for LivePlanet said a launch date tentatively is set for the end of this month.
According to the Web site, LivePlanet “makes new entertainment experiences that break down the barriers between traditional media, new media and the physical world.”
The company’s first attempt to break down these barriers will be an upcoming project called “The Runner.”
On a mission
Affleck and Damon will produce the reality-based television show, recently picked up by ABC. “The Runner” follows one person who tries to accomplish various missions all across the United States without being seen by anybody from the viewing audience. The show encourages viewers to track the runner on both television and the Web. The runner will carry a hidden camera and be followed closely as well by others with cameras.
If the runner succeeds in avoiding detection, he or she wins $1 million. If, however, anyone visibly spots the runner, that person wins the $1 million instead.
“Their presentation was very well received,” said Suzanne Gordon, ABC’s director of media relations for reality series. “We liked the concept and idea. But there’s not even a line producer for the show yet. It’s strictly in development. There’s no projected air date.”
So LivePlanet has a cool project idea in the pipeline and two hunky celebs to mug for the press, but what about a business model? And what’s to keep it from going the way of similar convergence efforts, let alone dozens of proposed TV projects every year?
“Their business model, though difficult, really made financial sense,” said David Roux, founder of the Silicon Valley-based venture firm Silver Lake Partners, which provided seed capital to LivePlanet.
Roux was skeptical in the beginning.
“The first time I saw it, I hated it,” Roux said. “It wasn’t fully baked. I had to be disabused of my prejudice that Hollywood folks can’t do technology. There are no positive examples of successful collaboration between the tech world and the media world.”
All vanity aside
Eventually, Roux was won over by the seriousness and intelligence of the four founders.
“This is not a vanity project,” Roux said. “They’re really smart guys. And it’s not just one of them. To run a great business, you need a great team. So we decided to take a swing.”
The swing that Roux and his partners took was worth $2 million, and was used to refine the company’s business model by hooking the founders up with technology experts in Silicon Valley.
Roux also considered it an advantage that LivePlanet is not a collaboration between two existing companies.
“A lot of stuff that hasn’t worked (has involved) Silicon Valley company A with Hollywood company B,” Roux said. “(LivePlanet) is one company. They’re very inclusive, but no one is going to bamboozle them.”
