Foxtel has announced a significant new multi-year content deal with Warner Bros. International Distribution which will see the pay-tv company become the exclusive home of Warner Bros. titles.
The deal includes four new series premiering on FOX8 and FOX SHOWCASE over the next twelve months: Castle Rock, Legacies, Roswell, New Mexico and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.
The fresh deal comes after TEN was forced to exit a content supply agreement it had with Warner Bros in 2017 after the network went into administration.
The deal will have immediate benefits for Foxtel viewers with the addition of the highly-anticipated psychological horror series Castle Rock to the FOX SHOWCASE line-up this week.
Castle Rock comes from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and executive producers/writers Sam Saw & Dustin Thomason. Set in the Stephen King multiverse and featuring a stellar cast including André Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Bill Skarsgård, with Jane Levy and Sissy Spacek, the chilling new 10-part series combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved worlds, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.
While the fictional town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King’s literary career – Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things as well as the novella The Body and short storyRita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption are either set there or contain reference to Castle Rock – Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller, a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most beloved stories.
Legacies, the new occult drama series from Julie Plec that represents the third chapter in The Vampire Diaries/The Originals trilogy, will premiere on FOX8 this Thursday, November 15 at 9.30pm and follows the next generation of supernatural beings at The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted.
Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter, 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson; Alaric Saltzman’s twins, Lizzie and Josie Saltzman and other young adults come of age in the most unconventional way possible, nurtured to be their best selves, in spite of their worst impulses. Will these young witches, vampires and werewolves become the heroes they want to be — or the villains they were born to be?
Coming to FOX8 in 2019 is new drama series Roswell, New Mexico, based on the Roswell High book series as imagined by The Originals’ Carina Adly MacKenzie and Julie Plec.
After reluctantly returning to her tourist-trap hometown, Roswell native Liz Ortecho discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life, along with those of his otherworldly siblings. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.
Also launching on FOX8 next year is Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, the 10-episode spinoff of the international hit series Pretty Little Liars from executive producer/writer I. Marlene King, based on the Alloy Entertainment book series.
Set in Beacon Heights, a seemingly perfect town, the series revolves around a group of three college friends who struggle with the stress of being overachievers. In the aftermath of the town’s first murder, each Perfectionist hides behind a secret, a lie and an alibi. Sasha Pieterse returns as Alison DiLaurentis and Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal, joined by Sofia Carson, Sydney Park, Eli Brown, Graeme Thomas King, Hayley Erin, Chris Mason and Kelly Rutherford.
Brian Walsh, Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television, said: “Warner Bros. Television is one of the entertainment industry’s most respected producers of original and award-winning drama and comedy, and this new deal will further enrich Foxtel’s incredible slate of exclusive international content.”
Jeffrey Schlesinger, President, Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution, said: “We are pleased to have concluded this deal with Foxtel to bring these distinctive and entertaining series to audiences in Australia.”
All four series will also be available at launch to stream through Foxtel On Demand on internet-connected iQ set-top-boxes and on streaming services Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now.
