MEDIA RELEASE: Tuesday, September 30 2014
The new “fall” season is about to launch in the US and with it, the major new hopes for the US broadcast networks. Two of the shows which are generating the most buzz have been secured by Foxtel and will debut here in a matter of weeks.
Foxtel has signed with Warner Bros / Nine Network to acquire THE FLASH, and with CBS Studios to license JANE THE VIRGIN.
One of the most anticipated new programs on offer is the Warner Bros. superhero saga and Arrow spinoff, THE FLASH. The series stars Grant Gustin (Glee) as Barry Allen, a scientist who is exposed to radiation from a particle accelerator. Barry gains the ability to move at super-speed and dedicates his life to solving mysteries, fighting criminals… and determining who killed his mother.
From CBS Studios, everyone is talking about the hilarious new comedy-drama JANE THE VIRGIN. The series stars newcomer Gina Rodriguez as Jane, a conscientious, ambitious twenty-something virgin whose meticulous life plans are turned upside down when she is accidentally artificially inseminated during a routine check-up at the doctors.
Both series will premiere on Foxtel’s FOX8 HD channel in December and be fast-tracked over summer.
In other deals firmed by Foxtel, it has acquired the apocalyptic drama THE MESSENGERS, from CBS, also to be shown on FOX8. The series follows a group of seemingly unconnected strangers who die from the energy pulse of a mysterious object that crashes to Earth, but are awakened to learn that they are being held responsible for preventing the impending apocalypse.
Also from CBS is the British-American horror series PENNY DREADFUL which will be broadcast on Foxtel’s showcase channel on Thursday November 6 at 7.30pm. The series weaves together some of literature’s most terrifying characters in the darkest corners of Victorian London, including Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and iconic figures from the novel Dracula,
To launch on Foxtel’s SoHo channel on Wednesday November 5 at 8.30pm is the 20th Century Fox drama series RUSH. Tom Ellis stars as Dr William Rush who is far from your average on-call doctor. He’s not attached to any hospital, and is highly discreet as long as the client can pay his cash-only premium. And this doctor can party with the best of them. He has no desire to change his life or how he lives it, until an old flame and his conscience begin to stir things up.
Also from 20th Century Fox are two comedies that will air on FOX8 in early 2015 – FRESH OFF THE BOAT and CRISTELA.
Based loosely on the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang, FRESH OFF THE BOAT is a comedy about pursuing the American Dream. It’s the ‘90s and 12-year-old, hip-hop loving Eddie (Hudson Yang) has just moved to suburban Orlando from DC’s Chinatown with his parents.
CRISTELA is a sitcom from the producers of the Tim Allen comedy Last Man Standing and has been created by and stars Cristela Alonzo. After six years of law school, Cristela is finally on the brink of landing her first big (unpaid) internship at a prestigious law firm. The only problem is that her pursuit of success is more ambitious than her traditional Mexican-American family thinks is appropriate.
As part of Foxtel’s existing output deal with HBO come the two dramas THE LEFTOVERS and OLIVE KITTERIDGE, which will both be broadcast on showcase.
Premiering on Tuesday October 14 at 8.30pm, THE LEFTOVERS is based on the novel by Tom Perrotta about mysterious disappearances of people from all over the world and the consequences for those left behind.
OLIVE KITTERIDGE is based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, and features an all-star cast including Frances McDormand, Peter Jenkins and Bill Murray. The four-part mini-series (slated for early 2015) tells the poignantly sweet, acerbically funny and devastatingly tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy.
From Cinemax comes the Steven Soderbergh directed drama THE KNICK. Airing on showcase in December, THE KNICK is set in downtown New York in 1900 and centers on the Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff who work there.
And from AMC Networks Foxtel has secured THE DIVIDE (premiering Thu Nov 11 at 8.30pm on SoHo), a drama following an impassioned caseworker, Christine Rosa (Marin Ireland) as she struggles to stop the impending execution of a death row inmate, whom she believes was wrongly convicted of a young family’s heinous murder 11 years earlier.
-Brad