Quickly on the heels of its landmark deal with Sony Pictures to be the first television network to be able to give a first-run showing of “Spider Man 3,” FX, the young cable network, has just landed a deal with Sony to also be the first to unveil the Nicolas Cage SF movie “Ghost Rider” to television viewers. (To learn more about FX’s win to get “Spider Man 3” listen to the TV Talk segment on our Slice of SciFi Show #109).
FX may pay upwards to $33 million or more for the Spidey TV debut and Ghost will run them in the low $30 million mark. Seems like the cabler is putting those advertising bucks to good use. With this kind of programming, the cable channel is sure to attract even more advertisers, as well as viewers, to its doorstep.
Along with the “Spider Man 3” and “Ghost Rider” deal with Sony, FX will also get rights for the Sandra Bullock thriller “Premonition,” the 2006 version of “When a Stranger Calls,” “Underworld: Evolution” and “The Grudge 2.” This exclusivity deal only applies to broadcast and regular cable networks. All these films will still debut on premium pay stations such as Starz, HBO and Showtime before coming to FX and then other broadcast networks.
Recently FX has become the non-premium cable network to get your SF movies. They were the first to showcase such films as “Spider Man 2,” “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Batman Begins” and “Superman Returns.”
The young network got on the advertiser’s watch list once the independent television show “The Shield,” starring “The Fantastic Four” actor Michael Chiklis (“The Commish”), garnered several Emmy awards in its opening season. Since then FX has featured such award winning dramas as Denis Leary’s groundbreaking “Resue Me,” “Nip/Tuck,” the highly acclaimed Andre Braugher miniseries “Thief” and Danny DeVito’s hit dramedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” FX also has two new kids on the block that have become instant hits — “Dirt” starring “Friends” alum Courtney Cox and “The Riches” headlined by Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver giving compelling performances.
The Reeves/Bullock movie was The Lake House. Premonition is a thriller with Bullock and Julian McMahon.
Thanks Brian….see, this is what happens when you go on a great two week vacation…you come back all f….k’d up. 🙂
I’ll fix that now.
Lake House was a fine movie….but Premonition? Not so good!
Everyone seems to be surprised that this “young” network has the pebbles and clams to be able to make deals like this. Are we forgetting that FX is a member of the Fox Entertainment Group?
Fox has always positioned FX as a premier cable channel–the flagship of their cable divisions. It doesn’t seem surprising to me that FX Networks would negotiate aggressively for these movie deals given Fox’s drive to put FX in the forefront of cable networks.