SANTA MONICA, Calif.,
LOS ANGELES, and CHICAGO, July 28,
2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Coming off rave reviews surrounding
last night's debut of the powerful new drama "Manhattan" on WGN America, Lionsgate (NYSE:
LGF), a premier next generation global content leader, and Hulu
have announced a ground-breaking deal for the new series to stream
exclusively on Hulu Plus the day after its WGN America Sunday night
airing, the two companies announced today. Hulu has acquired
exclusive subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) rights to the
critically-acclaimed new series produced by Lionsgate, Skydance
Television and Tribune Studios.
Beginning today, new episodes of season one will be available
every Monday following WGN America's Sunday night airing, with all
13 episodes of season one available on Hulu Plus upon the
completion of the season on air. Hulu will also make the five most
recently broadcast episodes of season one available on the free,
ad-supported Hulu on a three day delay.
"After seeing the episodes, and enjoying every minute, I knew
this series represented the kind of high-quality, addictive
programming that we strive to bring to Hulu," said Craig Erwich, Senior Vice President, Head of
Content at Hulu. "That's why this deal marks the first time
that Hulu has committed to a series before a single episode had
even aired."
"The speed with which we were able to launch a second window
deal is a testament to three factors -- the willingness of our
entrepreneurial partner Hulu to join us in embracing new approaches
to our business, the tremendous quality of our ensemble cast,
creator Sam Shaw and director
Thomas Schlamme, and the enormous
critical acclaim with which the series has been received," said
Kevin Beggs, Chairman of Lionsgate
Television Group. "Manhattan is shaping up to become another
proud entry in our tradition of ground-breaking television series
with enduring value."
"We're delighted to extend a partnership with Hulu that should
help further expand the audience for this deserving show," said
Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television & Digital
Distribution Jim Packer. "We believe that this innovative
arrangement will be a win/win/win for Lionsgate, our partners and,
most of all, our audiences."
Lionsgate and Hulu are already partnered on the Hulu Original
Deadbeat, which is currently streaming on Hulu and has
already been renewed for a second season.
Manhattan has been
greeted by an explosion of critical acclaim in The New York Times ("cleverly imagined"), Time Magazine
("a mature, thoughtful drama"), Entertainment Weekly ("a megawatt
start to a show crackling with megaton ambition"), The Hollywood
Reporter ("WGN America's gripping, strongly acted new series is
well worth seeking out"), St. Louis Post Dispatch ("riveting -- the
kind of series that is so good it lifts a network into a whole new
tier") and USA Today ("terrific
John Benjamin Hickey"), among many
others.
About "Manhattan"
Fueled by mystery and suspense, "Manhattan" is set in the 1940s in a town whose
very existence is classified. Frank
Winter (John Benjamin Hickey)
and his team of brilliant but flawed scientists have been recruited
to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their
arrival. Once inside "The Hill," a middle-class bubble on a
dusty foothill in the New Mexico
desert, they begin to sense that this is no ordinary
assignment. In fact, they are living in a town with the
world's highest concentration of geniuses, yet it can't be found on
any map—a place where men and women are torn between duty and their
moral values, husbands and wives conceal the truth from each other
and their families, the military keeps secrets from the scientists
they chaperone, and the scientists keep secrets from each
other.
Credits
Created and written by Sam Shaw ("Masters of Sex") and directed by Emmy
Award-winning director Thomas
Schlamme ("The West Wing"), "Manhattan" is executive produced by
Sam Shaw, Thomas Schlamme, David
Ellison, Dana Goldberg,
Marcy Ross and Dustin Thomason. Filmed on location in
New Mexico, the series is produced
by Lionsgate Television, Skydance Television and Tribune
Studios.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a
strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and
distribution, television programming and syndication, home
entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and
international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has over
30 television shows on more than 20 networks spanning its primetime
production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such
critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad
Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger
Management, the network series Nashville, the syndication success The
Wendy Williams Show and the critically-acclaimed hit series
Orange is the New Black.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent
successes as the blockbuster first two installments of The
Hunger Games franchise, the first installment of the
recently-launched Divergent franchise, Now You See
Me, Kevin Hart: Let Me
Explain, Warm Bodies, The Expendables 2, The
Possession, Sinister, Roadside Attractions' Mud
and Pantelion Films' breakout hit Instructions Not Included,
the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the
U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the
foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
(www.lionsgate.com)
About Hulu
Hulu is an online TV service whose mission is to help people
find and enjoy the world's premium content when, where and how they
want. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that
users, advertisers and content owners unabashedly love.
(www.hulu.com)
Media Contacts:
Barrie Gruner
Hulu Communications
Phone: (424) 322-2237
barrie@hulu.com
Leah Krantzler
EVP, Television
The Lippin Group for Lionsgate
O: (323) 965-1990
lkrantzler@lippingroup.com
For Lionsgate corporate inquiries, please contact:
Peter D. Wilkes
Lionsgate
(310) 255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
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SOURCE Lionsgate