E1’s Haven Finds Syfy Home

NEW YORK: Syfy has ordered 13 episodes of E1 Entertainment’s supernatural drama Haven, based on the Stephen King novella The Colorado Kid, for rollout on its feeds worldwide, excluding Canada and Scandinavia.

Production on the new series is slated to begin in 2010 for broadcast later in the year. Worldwide distribution is being handled by E1 Entertainment. The show is set in a town in the state of Maine that has become a haven for people with supernatural abilities—the town of Haven mutes individuals’ powers, allowing them to live ordinary lives. An FBI agent heads to Haven to solve the murder of a local ex-con and begins uncovering the town’s mysteries. Scott Shepherd (Tru Calling, The Dead Zone) is serving as showrunner, with executive producers Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller and E1 Entertainment’s John Morayniss and Noreen Halpern.

Mark Stern, the executive VP of original content for Syfy and co-head of original content for Universal Cable productions, said of the series: "Haven is the quintessential Stephen King town, full of complex, yet identifiable, characters and compelling supernatural situations. We also couldn’t be more excited to partner with our international Syfy channels and be in business with E1 who will definitely deliver the high-quality production value we expect."

Morayniss, the CEO of E1’s Television Group, added: “E1 has successfully orchestrated the first Syfy global partnership with Syfy in the U.S. and their international pay channels and we couldn’t be more pleased. What a combination: the Syfy brand, the pedigree of Stephen King and the global presence and reach of E1. With those ingredients, I predict a worldwide ratings hit for Haven. Syfy audiences and television viewers around the world will be enthralled with this exciting new series."

Syfy’s president, Dave Howe, said Haven is the "first series to capitalize on the global power of the Syfy brand. This and more series like this in the future will be a potential game changer for Syfy’s business, enabling us to commission and produce more and more high production value original content that can live on Syfy’s growing network of channels around the globe."

Roma Khanna, the president of Universal Networks International, added, “Haven, based on the novella The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, is the first major content partnership driven by our global Syfy business and is the first step in our plan to invest in more top quality content for Syfy Universal and our newly revitalized global channel portfolio. This world-class project illustrates our commitment to deliver more high profile, first-run content which provides compelling entertainment for our viewers around the world.”