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Gene George, the executive VP of Starz Worldwide Distribution, talks about new high-profile productions.<\/p>\nGene George, the executive VP of Starz Worldwide Distribution, talks about new high-profile productions.<\/p>\n
For some years now, top Hollywood feature film talent have been embracing episodic television. In fact, Michael Bay, who has produced numerous films, including Transformers<\/em>, Armageddon<\/em> and Pearl Harbor<\/em>, is now serving as executive producer for Black Sails<\/em>, the latest STARZ original series.<\/p>\n Black Sails<\/em> is having its international premiere at MIPCOM, brought to the market by Starz Worldwide Distribution, the global sales arm of Starz.<\/p>\n As the premium pay channel in the U.S has been boosting its original productions, starting with Spartacus<\/em> and Magic City<\/em>, Starz Worldwide Distribution has had high-end product to offer international broadcasters. \u201cWe had The White Queen<\/em> at MIPTV and have sold it now to almost all key territories worldwide,\u201d says George. \u201cAnd now we have a second high-profile series this year, Black<\/em> Sails<\/em>, to show at MIPCOM.\u201d<\/p>\n The eight-episode first season of Black Sails<\/em> is a pirate adventure that focuses on the exploits of Captain Flint and his men and takes place 20 years before the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island<\/em>. The series stars Toby Stephens (Die Another Day<\/em>) as Captain Flint and was created by showrunner and executive producer Jon Steinberg. Both, along with most lead members of the cast, are expected to be on hand at MIPCOM, and at the invitation-only screening, which will take place Monday, October 7 at 3 p.m. in Auditorium A in the Palais des Festivals.<\/p>\n George has been on the lookout for product to boost his catalogue, including series from basic cable networks, whose content is less bold and provocative than other pay-TV series, like Spartacus<\/em> and Magic City<\/em>. Both series, however, have sold to pay-TV outlets around the world, and in edited versions, also to free-TV broadcasters. \u201cSpartacus<\/em> is a really interesting case because it is such an edgy show with all the violence, sex and nudity. It was a show that had powerful writing and some great strong characters and even if that edginess was pulled out, it still played extremely well and was a big success on free TV,\u201d explains George.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, George has been looking for series that can play as they are on terrestrial broadcasters, such as Hit the Floor<\/em>, the 1-hour drama about a group of cheerleaders for an NBA team, which airs on VH1. \u201cSeries produced for basic cable have different content requirements compared to what we are doing on premium, but what we like about some of the cable series is that they give us the opportunity to offer programming that can act as premiere content for some of the terrestrial channels,\u201d says George.<\/p>\n Starz Worldwide Distribution remains quite active in the TV movie business. \u201cWe continue to focus on holiday movies, female thrillers and action disaster films,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe are looking at TV movies that typically have homes on U.S. cable networks such as Lifetime, Hallmark Channel, Syfy and ABC Family\u2014those types of movies work very well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n At MIPCOM, George will have two new TV movies on offer, the Lifetime movie The Christmas Card<\/em>, and the female thriller Hidden Away<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gene George, the executive VP of Starz Worldwide Distribution, talks about new high-profile productions. For some years now, top Hollywood feature film talent have been embracing episodic television. In fact, Michael Bay, who has produced numerous films, including Transformers, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, is now serving as executive producer for Black Sails, the latest STARZ …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"\n