From the Department of Retro Awesomeness, Pulp Adventure Section (well, actually from Chris Roberson’s blog, but that other intro sounds a lot more impressive, doesn’t it?) comes this, a trailer for an upcoming web series that sets my heart a-racing:

A square-jawed, all-American hero dressed like the Rocketeer fights glowing space-ghost guys and a brain in a jar with a raygun, and all in glorious black and white? How could that not be cool? (Actually, don’t answer that… this sort of thing is pretty tricky to pull off without falling into either self-conscious — and usually not very funny — parody or painfully earnest ridiculousness. Nevertheless, I think this attempt looks promising.)

The official site describes the series thusly:

The Mercury Men marks a modern return of the classic cliffhanger serials. “The web video format seemed the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the old serial style of storytelling,” says writer/director Christopher Preksta. “Not as an homage with cheesy dialogue, corny characters, and bad special effects, but as a modern story with the great suspense, danger, and mystery the serials were known for at the time. With the short form of digital media, movies are simply coming back to their roots.”

You know, this strikes me as a case of the Internet — not to mention sophisticated film-making technology that the average consumer can actually afford — finally living up to the promises that were made 10 or 15 years ago, when we were being told that this big digital thing that was about to happen would open up all sorts of opportunities to do creative stuff that mainstream Hollywood (or publishing or the music industry or whatever) wouldn’t take a chance on, and, furthermore, to actually find an audience for it.

I’ve ranged far enough across the ‘net to know that there is a demographic that’s interested in old-fashioned pulp storytelling and serials and such, but it’s undeniably a niche market, too small to justify the expense of a feature film that likely wouldn’t make a decent return on investment. I’m thinking in particular of a movie from a few years back called Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I thought that was a very nifty flick, full of affectionate nods to the same things The Mercury Men is referencing, and with some downright eye-popping visual effects. I know a number of other people who felt the same way about it. But sadly there just weren’t enough of us to matter, and the movie died a miserable death at the box office, thus ensuring that we’re unlikely to see anything like it ever again. At least… not in a movie theater.

Now, for the record, I’d prefer to see a big-screen movie over something delivered online. I still think the movie-theater experience can never be fully re-created inside the home. And even though I know there’s technology out there that can transfer streaming Internet video to my HDTV, I don’t have the technical know-how or the budget to set up such a system. Which leaves me in the somewhat unappealing position of watching videos at my desk. But given a choice between watching an old-fashioned cliffhanger serial in my office instead of the living room, or gritting my teeth through another soulless big-screen crapfest that doesn’t begin to speak to me… well, I’ve got a pretty decent-quality monitor on my desk.
The first episode of The Mercury Men is due this fall. I’m waiting with bated breath…