SCI FI CHANNEL CLOSES MAJOR DEAL WITH CBS PARAMOUNT TO ACQUIRE RIGHTS FOR TELEFILMS AND SERIES INCLUDING STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE
NEW YORK, NY-August 2, 2006— SCI FI Channel has acquired the rights to multiple made-for-television movies and series from CBS Paramount Domestic Television, including Star Trek: Enterprise, the Star Trek prequel series starring Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock, it was announced today by Thomas Vitale, SVP, Programming and Original Movies, SCI FI Channel. The deal also includes exclusive cable rights to the classic series The Twilight Zone; the series Tales from the Darkside; several Stephen King miniseries; made-for-TV movies, including Primal Force and Trilogy of Terror II; and series such as Haunted, Jake 2.0 and last fall’s Threshold.
“We are delighted to be able to deliver so many successful programs to our audience,” said Mr. Vitale in making the announcement. “Our deal with CBS Paramount enables us to bring a great deal of fresh and extremely popular genre programming to our schedule.”
Enterprise, which ran for four seasons between 2001-2005 on UPN, will premiere in early fall on the SCI FI Channel. The popular anthology series, The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling, was renewed and will continue its exclusive run on the Channel. Tales from the Darkside, the syndicated horror with a twist series, will premiere later this year.
Three highly acclaimed miniseries, including two from Stephen King, will also premiere exclusively this fall. Invaders stars Scott Bakula as a man who discovers an alien conspiracy and attempts to foil their plot by warning the earth of imminent danger. The Langoliers, originally one of four short stories in the Stephen King novel Four Past Midnight, stars Dean Stockwell and Patricia Wettig as passengers on a cross-country flight who awake to find that they and a small group of others are the only people left on earth. Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Stand, starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, takes place in a world decimated by a man-made plague, where a battle of epic proportions ensues between the survivors,.
The deal also includes five made-for-television movies. Inferno, directed by Dusty Nelson, stars Jeff Fahey and Janet Gunn; Lost in the Bermuda Triangle stars Tom Verica and Charlotte d’Amboise; Primal Force features Ron Perlman as a rescuer trying to reach plane crash victims trapped on an island with mutant baboons; Sightings: Heartland Ghost, with Beau Bridges and Nia Long, revolves around the crew of a reality TV show about the paranormal, who visit a small Kansas town to investigate a house that may be haunted; and Trilogy of Terror II, which begins where the first trilogy left off, featuring three spooky stories and starring Lysette Anthony.
Additionally, eight television series will premiere exclusively during the 2006-07 season.
Haunted follows Lost’s Matthew Fox as a detective haunted by lost souls from beyond the grave.
Threshold stars Carla Gugino as part of a team of experts who are assembled when the U.S. Navy discovers an extraterrestrial craft has landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Suspense thriller Wolf Lake, set in the Pacific Northwest, explores what happens when werewolves overtake a small Seattle suburb. It stars Sharon Lawrence and Scott Bairstow.
Christopher Gorham is Jake 2.0, a computer technician who is involved in a freak accident and begins to operate at an atomic level, possessing superhuman strength, lightning-fast speed, heightened hearing, magnified vision and the ability to communicate telepathically with computers.
Kindred, the Embraced is a series based on the White Wolf role-playing game, Vampire: the Masquerade. Julian Luna, played by C. Thomas Howell, the undead Prince of the City, leads the Vampire Clans as he falls in love with Caitlin, a human reporter, played by Kelly Rutherford.
Fabrizio Filippo stars in Level 9, which follows a top-secret government unit that serves as the nation’s last-and-only line of defense against high-tech criminal plots.
Detectives Nick O’Malley (Michael Landes) and Kate Benson (Alexondra Lee) work in Special Unit 2, a secret precinct of the Chicago Police Department whose sole charge is to protect the city’s citizens from Links, a malicious paranormal species that is the missing link between man and beast.
All Souls explores the supernatural side of a 300-year-old South Boston hospital, starring Grayson McCouch, Reiko Aylesworth and Serena Scott Thomas.
Source: NBC Universal press release
Michael says
But where is the confirmation of Dr Who’s series 2 being on in October?!?
minbari73 says
Good to see SciFi pick up several cancelled shows. Woopdedoo. Great..how about continuing Threshold to it’s conclusion?
Kyle Nin says
Don’t make it sound like bad news. The Sci-Fi Channel picking up these shows brings them one step closer to coming back.
Jay Hinkelman says
Sorry, gotta make a correction: C. Thomas Howell did *not* play Julian Luna on “Kindred” — the late Mark Frankel did. Howell plays a police detective investigating Luna, whom he thinks is just a mobster.
Mike from Miami says
I digg this; do you?
http://digg.com/television/Sci_FI_aqquires_several_series_from_CBS_including_Star_Trek_Enterprise
tllgrrl says
I’m so happy to see that Kindred is going to be aired.
I absolutely loved that show. So much that not only did I record the episodes Back In The Day…I still have the tapes. I’ll be buying a new set of tapes and record the show again. This time set on SP.
(Don’t laugh. I taped Firefly and kept the tapes till I got the DVDs. I still have the complete Twin Peaks, commercials and all.)
: )
Kyle Nin says
Haven’t The Langoliers and The Stand already been aired on the Sci-Fi Channel? Did they buy the rights twice?
lord of Wolves says
special unit II should be on Sci-Fi…..and I’ll admit it…I am taken by the lovely,talented actress Alexondra Lee…boots and all…aka SHE’S HOT! ( boots & all )
G'zilla says
Alenondra Lee….S.U.2 = great show!
SHE’D BE PREFECT FOR THE KNIGHTRIDER MOVIE AS
Dr.Bonnie Barstow
Edward says
Hello SCI-FI,
You guys are the best… How about investing little money to finish the “Threshold Series” since NBC & UPN are Cheap ass network’s that start a good series on then leave them on-finished… I guess if you have to you can compare NBC & UPN like the Democrats… Ha.Ha.Ha.
Yours truly.
the Demon says
I agree with you guys….
if the cast needs cinematic sex appeal for the babe….
Alexondra lee wold fit the boots/lab coat just fine
SAREK says
A LOGICAL CHOICE FOR AN ACTRESS TO FT INTO THAT ROLE
THO Ms. McPherson is quite a good sight even still,today.
I am sure the body of work done by the very lovely Ms. Alexondra lee is ample to the task,along with her talent & assetts,beauty….
redfox says
I watched the Wolf Lake series that never ended–Will UPN be showing all the shows listed in their entirety, or just that which was shown on the other channels? I would like to rewatch, but not to have them end randomly with out closure! If yes, then does anyone know how to get any of these shows in their entirety?
SeanX says
SAVE TAPS……GHOST HUNTERS…. FROM CANCELLATION….!
write to sci-fi…demand they keep it on.