Today Anthony E. Zuiker unleashes a new level of evil into the world. The creator and executive producer of the CSI franchise hopes that Sqweegel, the diabolical monster at the heart of his new multi-media project, Level 26, will slash through the boundaries of traditional crime classification and beyond the confines of the traditional publishing world. Bringing the novel into the digital age, Level 26 connects the printed word with motion picture elements and an interactive web-based social community. "I wanted to tell a story 'too hot' for television while at the same time giving the existing crime reader a different experience," says Zuiker. To this end Zuiker and SuicideGirls have teamed up to create some killer images (shot by SG co-founder Missy) to celebrate the launch of Level 26.

Dark Origins, which goes on sale today, is the first of three planned Level 26 "digi-novels," which will be released at a rate of one a year thru 2011. Crime fiction fans can consume the thrillers via the familiar left to right, cover to cover route, or take a less linear approach, logging on to view cinematic "cyber-bridges" using special access codes when prompted every 20 pages or so. Zuiker ultimately hopes the audience will be immersed enough in the dark world he's created to be motivated to participate in Level26.com's social and interactive areas which were built by the creators of hit faux vlogger Lonelygirl 15. (Full disclosure: Zuiker also worked with SG founder Sean Suhl to give the Level26.com community "stickiness" - be warned, once you enter you may find yourself unable to leave!)

Inspiration for Level 26 came to Zuiker while he was vacationing in Tokyo, Japan. "I caught a BBC documentary about serial killers which explored how law enforcement experts around the world define the barometer for serial killer criterion," says Zuiker. "Over decades, organizations such as Interpol, the DOD, the NSA, the CIA and the FBI have ranked serial killers from level 1 to 25. A level 1 killer might qualify if they murdered a neighbor. A level 25 serial killer would earn his classification depending on manner of death, intelligence, number of kills, vindictive motive, signature, popularity, etc. Charles Manson might qualify."

Going beyond Manson, Zuiker claims Sqweegel is "the scariest killer in the world." In part he says this is because he is "forensic proof" -- his signature being a full body latex "condom" suit which he wears while perpetrating his bloody crimes to foil crime scene investigators. But what drives Sqweegel to kill?

"Sqweegel is motivated by sinners who sin, liars who lie, cowards who act cowardly. For all the people we come across in every day life who piss us off, there is a bit of Sqweegel inside all of us," warns Zuiker. "If you have sinned, he will carry out your sentence. He loathes injustice."

This ultimate serial killer was fleshed out with the help of co-writer Duane Swierczynski. "Duane's voice was unique and aggressive and I liked that for this type of novel," says Zuiker, who was introduced to his Level 26 collaborator by his publishers Duttons.

"I was responsible for a 60-page outline and 20 motion picture scenes," says Zuiker. "He would then write a 400 page novel around the outline and then contort the manuscript around the scenes I would shoot. It was a different way of working for him, but then again it is a different kind of concept."

The video bridges, which Zuiker says are not merely recaps of the preceding text but a continuation of it, feature some familiar faces including Michael Ironside (Terminator Salvation), Bill Duke (Menace II Society), Kevin Weisman (Alias) and Glen Morshower (24). "It was always my intent to work with A-List actors on this project,' says Zuiker. "We also have a former Oscar winner attached to do books two and three."

Though shooting outside the confines of network television meant he could push the envelope content-wise, interestingly Zuiker, who has never been shy of mixing sex with violence in his CSI shows, ultimately decided to impose certain limits upon himself. "I actually pulled the footage back from its original conception. I thought I would be shooting X-rated footage," reveals Zuiker. "After giving it some deeper thought, I decided that I would pull it back and make the footage hard R. Without giving too much away, the first cyber bridge is a snuff film."

Despite self-censoring to some extent, Zuiker still exploited the freedoms his new medium allowed. "I think you can call the digi-novel the anti-television experience," he says. "It pushes the envelope off of the table while still trying to be respectfully commercial."

After successfully collaborating with SuicideGirls on an episode of CSI: NY (which to date is the franchise's highest rated show in the 18-45 demographic), to mark the release of Dark Origins, SG and Zuiker decided to join forces again and produce a special Level 26-inspired photoset (which will go live on SuicideGirls.com at 6 PM today).

In the super sexy set, which was shot last month in a room at The Standard hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, a negligee-clad Coley meets her fate at the hands of Chloe, who's wearing Sqweegel's tight, custom made, white latex suit.

"Sean, Missy, and I are all friends. Sean thought it’d be fun to have an SG come out of the murder suit in a multi-set. My wife, Jennifer Zuiker, art directed the shoot and we had a blast," says Zuiker (read his account of the shoot here). The photographs were taken by Missy, who also shot the image that was used for the Dark Origins book cover during an earlier cyber-bridge set visit.

When asked why he reached out to SuicideGirls to collaborate on Level 26 Zuiker explains, "I thought the SG community would love the dark nature of the project. Plus, I'm a nerdy kid from Vegas who has a diabolical mind who's not approaching this project like a commercial CSI. This is 100% Zuiker and all of his twisted nature. I just wanted to write a book that would scare the shit out of you while at the same time give publishing a shot in the arm. I've always considered SG to be American royalty. It's this type of close-knit loyal community that I want for Level 26, so why not start at community that's already done it and done it well."



The complete Level 26 / Sqweegel photoset can be viewed HERE.

Photographs by Missy. Additional photography by Sean and Sawa.

Dark Origins is available at Amazon.com and all fine book stores.

SuicideGirls members and fans are invited to join the Level 26 community, create profile pages, chat, read interviews with and blogs by Level 26 creators, characters and celebs, and get access to Anthony E. Zuiker at Level26.com. "I'm on the website all day, every day. I respond to every message, and am all over the site," says Zuiker. "It's a lot of fun!"