Foxtel reveals new 20th Century Fox slate
Foxtel has been awarded the right to air five new American television series from studio 20th Century Fox.
The announcement:
FOXTEL today announced the acquisition of a slate of new premium, first-run series through its landmark output deal with leading Hollywood Studio, 20th Century Fox.
Five of the most hotly anticipated new series to premiere on American television this year will be seen for the very first time in Australia, on the FOXTEL Owned and Operated Channels from late 2010.
FOXTEL will be the Australian home to RIDE-ALONG, the new drama series from Shawn Ryan (‘The Shield’ and ‘The Unit’), supernatural series THE GATES and THE GLADES, a character-driven police drama starring Australian actor Matt Passmore (‘McLeod’s Daughters’, ‘Underbelly’), which premiered in the US last week as the highest-rated original drama series ever on the A&E Network.
Rounding out the impressive line-up is satirical animated series NEIGHBOURS FROM HELL and the critically-acclaimed new comedy, LOUIE, voted by Time magazine as ‘one of the year’s best new sitcoms’.
FOXTEL Executive Director of Television, Brian Walsh said: “This years LA screenings produced some of the most diverse and compelling television in some time. I am delighted that we have secured some of the best picks from Hollywood.
“20th Century Fox is a prolific producer of some of the most awarded and critically acclaimed television series of all time and this year, they have delivered once again.”
Australian actor Jason Clarke (‘Public Enemies’, ‘Brotherhood’, ‘Wildside’, ‘All Saints’, ‘White Collar Blue’) and Jennifer Beals (‘Flashdance’, ‘Lie to Me’, ‘The L Word’) headline the gritty new action-packed drama RIDE-ALONG.
In this unique one-hour police procedural series, the audience follows the show as a passenger in a US police squad car, taking an unpredictable ride through the streets of Chicago and navigating crime and corruption with the most respected cops in the city.
THE GATES is a one-hour drama about a private mountain community that, on the outside, is the image of perpetual suburban bliss but has a dark and haunting secret buried just beneath the surface. Chief of Police Nick Monohan (Frank Grillo; ‘Prison Break’, ‘Blind Justice’, ‘Guiding Light’) and his family move to the quiet suburb and soon discover that THE GATES are filled with supernatural beings. The series is currently screening on US Network ABC.
THE GLADES is a police drama set in the fictional town of Palm Glade, Florida, starring Passmore and Kiele Sanchez (‘Lost’, ‘Samantha Who’).
Marketed as “sunny with a chance of homicide”, Passmore plays Jim Longworth, a brilliant homicide detective from Chicago who relocates to the sleepy, middle-of- nowhere town in the hope of a quieter life – a plan which is quickly derailed as dead bodies begin to show up.
NEIGHBOURS FROM HELL is a half-hour animated sitcom featuring the Hellmans, a family of demons from the netherworld who are sent to Houston, Texas to sabotage a newly made superdrill, before a heartless mining corporation use it to drill all the way to hell.
LOUIE centres on comedian Louie C.K. and is an autobiographical series that is a mix of sketches and stand-up comedy, with Louie telling jokes interspersed with vignettes starring C.K. as himself, a middle-aged, divorced father of two young girls, trying to navigate his daily life in New York City.
The programs join a stellar line-up of exclusive international programs on FOXTEL”s Owned and Operated Channels, including Damages (W), Rescue Me (W), Gossip Girl (FOX8), America’s Next Top Model (FOX8), American Idol (FOX8), Ice Road Truckers (FOX8), Entourage (Arena), The Real Housweives of New York City (Arena), Top Chef (Arena) and Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (Arena).
Source: Foxtel press release
