Starz Media
Published: September 23, 2009
Gene George
Executive VP, Worldwide Distribution

What are some of your top properties for MIPCOM?

Certainly our top priority at the market will be Spartacus: Blood and Sand, an amazing one-hour action drama series produced by our production group at Starz Media. The series is set to premiere on our Starz premium channel in the U.S. in January 2010. Spartacus: Blood and Sand is like nothing you've seen on TV and will bring a whole new look and energy to a classic story immersed with stunning action sequences and vibrant and compelling characters.

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What are your goals and expectations for MIPCOM?

We will be having a large presence at MIPCOM. We have great expectations on the licensing of our slate at the market and predict it will be one of the best in the history of the company. We will be holding a highly anticipated, exclusive "buyers only" world premiere of Spartacus: Blood and Sand during MIPCOM at the Palais. The creative team on this series--led by accomplished TV and feature veterans Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Steven S. DeKnight along with an accomplished cast that includes John Hannah, Lucy Lawless and Andy Whitfield as Spartacus--has brought the Spartacus story to life where violence and sexuality can be explored with great creative freedom. We are confident the buyers will respond to that.
 
Our goal is to place this series in the key territories during MIPCOM to allow our broadcast partners to capitalize on the tremendous multi-million dollar marketing campaign Starz will have in the U.S. leading up to the January premiere. We actually expect to have 3 major territories finalized prior to MIPCOM just off the trailer and the rest of the key countries to fall into place during the market.
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Is there any other information you would like to share regarding your plans for MIPCOM?

Starz Media will be a co-sponsor of the Opening Night cocktail reception, and our Spartacus: Blood and Sand presence will be strongly felt during this event. We will also be unveiling new footage from the series during this reception, and generally making sure that the whole market gets a chance to share in the excitement of what we believe is one of the most exciting new series that will be introduced at MIPCOM 2009.

Source

News contributed by Barbara Davies