Friday, March 16, 2018

Starz Greenlights New Original Limited Series "The Spanish Princess"

Starz Greenlights New Original Limited Series "The Spanish Princess"
The project is a new story in the dynastic saga of Tudor England and drawn from the global best sellers "The Constant Princess" and "The King's Curse" by Philippa Gregory.
[via press release from Starz] STARZ GREENLIGHTS NEW ORIGINAL LIMITED SERIES "THE SPANISH PRINCESS"
SERIES DRAWN FROM PHILIPPA GREGORY'S BEST SELLERS "THE CONSTANT PRINCESS" AND "THE KING'S CURSE"

Starz, a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), announced today the network has greenlit "The Spanish Princess," a new story in the dynastic saga of Tudor England and drawn from the global best sellers The Constant Princess and The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory.

The STARZ Original Limited series "The Spanish Princess" continues the story from the Golden Globe(R) and Emmy(R) award-nominated STARZ Original Miniseries "The White Queen" and the STARZ Original Limited Series "The White Princess." Produced by All3 Media's New Pictures and Playground, "The Spanish Princess" is a powerful, epic story that not only returns the audience to the world of royal court intrigue as seen uniquely through the perspective of the women, but also sheds light on a previously untold corner of history - the lives of people of color, living and working in 16th century London.

"Starz is committed to its ongoing programming strategy to provide premium content highlighting the untold stories of strong women in history," said Carmi Zlotnik, President of Programming for Starz. "We have a passionate fanbase who embraces female-led stories like 'The White Queen' and 'The White Princess' and are excited to continue with Catherine of Aragon's story in 'The Spanish Princess.'"

Acclaimed writers Emma Frost ("The White Queen," "The White Princess," "The Man in the High Castle") and Matthew Graham ("Life on Mars," "Electric Dreams," "Dr. Who") are serving as showrunners and executive producers.

Executive producing with Frost and Graham are Colin Callender ("The White Queen," "The Dresser," "Wolf Hall") and Scott Huff ("Howards End," "The White Princess," "The Missing") from Playground and Charlie Pattinson ("The White Queen," "Requiem," "The Missing 1 & 2") and Charlie Hampton ("Shameless," "Wild at Heart," and "Inspector George Gently") from All3 Media's New Pictures.

Senior Vice President of Original Programming Karen Bailey is the Starz executive in charge of "The Spanish Princess."

Starz retains all domestic multiplatform pay TV and SVOD rights to the series. Lionsgate retains all international and domestic distribution and home entertainment rights.

About "The Spanish Princess"
Catherine of Aragon, is the beautiful teenaged princess of Spain who was promised the English throne since she was a child. She arrives in a grey, rain-lashed England with her glorious and diverse court including her lady-in-waiting Lina - an African Moor. She is Princess of Wales now, but when her husband Prince Arthur dies suddenly, the throne seems lost to Catherine. Until she claims her marriage was never consummated and that as a virgin she may set her sights on the new heir, the charismatic and headstrong Prince Harry who will one day rule as King Henry VIII.

"The Spanish Princess" is the third series drawn from Philippa Gregory's best-selling novels. The first, critically-acclaimed STARZ Original Miniseries event "The White Queen," was followed by the 8-episode limited series drama "The White Princess."

"The White Queen" was the first STARZ Original series to attract more women than men viewers with women making up 55 percent of the viewership*. *"The White Queen" also consistently ranked in the Top 10 cable shows for each premiere night and averaged 4.8 million multiplatform viewers per episode in the United States. "The White Princess" also attracted 57 percent women viewership and averaged 3.8 million U.S. multiplatform viewers per episode.

About Starz
Starz (www.starz.com) a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), is a leading global media and entertainment company that provides premium subscription video programming on domestic U.S. pay television networks and produces and distributes content for worldwide audiences, including its investment in the STARZ PLAY Arabia OTT service. Starz is home to the flagship STARZ(R) brand and STARZ ENCORE channels and provides high-quality, entertaining premium subscription video programming with 17 premium pay TV channels and associated on-demand and online services, including the STARZ app. Sold through U.S. multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, telecommunications companies, and other online and digital platforms, Starz offers subscribers more than 5,000 distinct premium television episodes and feature films every year and up to 1,500 every month, including STARZ Original series, first-run movies and other popular movie and television programming.

About Playground
Playground is a New York and London based television, film and theatre production company founded in 2012 by award-winning producer Colin Callender. It is committed to producing smart, entertaining drama for the screen and the stage bringing together the finest US and UK talent from the worlds of theatre, film, and television.

Playground has produced over 60 hours of primetime television drama garnering 15 Emmy nominations, 20 BAFTA nominations, and 12 Golden Globe nominations, including winning a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries.

Recent productions include Wolf Hall, the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning miniseries starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for the BBC and Masterpiece, and The Dresser, the RTS winning television adaptation of Ronald Harwood's acclaimed play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Starz, The White Princess, a limited series for Starz drawn from the bestselling book by Philippa Gregory, Howards End, Academy Award-winner Kenneth Lonergan's adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel starring Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Tracey Ullman directed by Hettie Macdonald for the BBC and Starz, Little Women adapted by Heidi Thomas and starring Emily Watson, Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury for the BBC and Masterpiece, and King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Amazon.

Playground's previous theatre productions on Broadway include: Nora Ephron's Tony-nominated Lucky Guy directed by George C. Wolfe starring Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut, Harvey Fierstein's Tony-nominated Casa Valentina directed by Joe Mantello, the Tony award-winning revival of musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jez Butterworth's The River directed by Ian Rickson starring Hugh Jackman, and Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford's critically acclaimed groundbreaking production of Macbeth at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, and John Tiffany's The Glass Menagerie in the West End.

Playground, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, is opening a production of the West End record-breaking hit two-part play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway this spring. Other current theatre productions include the Tony Award-winning best musical Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and, in the West End, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, Casey Nicholaw's Dreamgirls.

About New Pictures
New Pictures was established by Charlie Pattinson, Elaine Pyke, Willow Grylls and Richard Nelson in 2013 to produce television drama for all markets.

In its first years of operation New Pictures produced two seasons of the critically acclaimed The Missing for BBC One and Starz, and two seasons of Indian Summers for Channel 4 and WGBH.
In the last year, New Pictures productions have included crime thriller series Rellik (6x60') for BBC One and Cinemax, supernatural drama Requiem (6x60') for BBC One and Netflix, and The Innocents (8x60'); a shape-shifting love story for Netflix Originals. New Pictures goes into production on its latest series later this year - Catherine The Great (4x60') for Sky and HBO - a sweeping historical epic starring Helen Mirren.

Between them, the executive team have produced or commissioned over a thousand hours of award winning drama for every major UK broadcaster and for HBO, Cinemax, WGBH, CBS, MTV and Showtime in the USA.

Source: Nielsen Live +SD W18+ and P2+ GAA projections (000s) for all airings of The White Queen and The White Princess during the season

Source: Nielsen Live +3 HH Coverage Rating for The White Queen episode premiere telecasts
Source: Based on STARZ internal estimates of linear and time-shifted results from Nielsen (NPower), Rentrak (On Demand Essentials) and internal broadband data. Subject to further qualifications available upon request. 

No comments:

Post a Comment