Garden story is a virtual hit in US

An online graphic novel that started life in a west London back garden is set to become the next cult American TV series.

Hollywood studio MGM has bought the rights to British sci-fi trilogy The Many Worlds Of Jonas Moore for an undisclosed amount, and is in talks with broadcasters in America and Britain about producing a fulllength TV series.

The graphic novel, which stars James Bond actor Colin Salmon, is download-only and blends footage of real actors with art, animation and newsreels.

The story is set in a world where the British Empire never ended, and America is just one of many virtual worlds hosted on a global game network - where people live out their fantasies online. Salmon plays Jonas Moore, a character in one of these game worlds, who is forced to jump from reality to reality after learning his true nature.

Creator Howard Webster said: "We didn't have any money. I borrowed a neighbour's back garden on Kensington Church Street and we were all standing there in front of blue paper."

Webster then superimposed the images onto computer-generated backgrounds.

MGM's Chris Ottinger said he was confident the "compelling" series would be a hit.