A + E Networks revealed big remakes to media buyers at its upfront presentation on Thursday, April 30, in New York City.

A&E will air a TV series that tells the story of the adult life of Damien Thorn, who all people who were children in the 1970s remember as the terrifying main character of The Omen, also known as The Antichrist come to oversee the end of the world. The series originally was planned for Lifetime, but with shows like Bates Motel and an upcoming adaptation of Swedish vampire horror flick Let the Right One In, the network is increasingly headed toward horror, making the fact that A&E started out standing for Arts & Entertainment all the more confusing.

Bradley James stars as Damien, and Barbara Hersey, Omid Abtahi and Meganlyn Echikunwoke also star.

A + E will remake another iconic program from the 70s — Roots. LeVar Burton, who made his name as the star of the original mini-series, is a co-executive producer, along with Will Packer and Mark Wolper. Roots will air on History, A&E and Lifetime, much like Bonnie & Clyde did in 2013.

Similarly, A + E is partnering with The Weinstein Company and the BBC Worldwide on War and Peace, a limited series based on the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy and starring Lily James (Downton Abbey, Cinderella), Paul Dano (12 Years a Slave), Gillian Anderson (X Files) and Jim Broadbent (Iris, Moulin Rouge). The six-episode series also will air on all three networks.

History is planning reality series Alone, in which ten survivalists are placed in the Vancouver Island wilderness and tasked with staying alive in the quest to win $500,000.

Other shows from Lifetime include Unreal, which stars House of Cards’ and The Newsroom’s Constance Zimmer as a reality dating show producer and premieres June 1, and Sing It!, a docu-series that follows two New Jersey a cappella groups as they practice and compete.

Lifetime also is launching a new short-form digital video platform, currently titled Fall Into Me, which will feature romantic stories.

Finally, the youngest of the A+E Networks, FYI will premiere What the Fung?!, which features foodie comedians and brothers Andrew and David Fung as they travel across the country in search of the best local eats; docu-series Married at First Sight: The First Year, which follows up on the couples who married in season one; Food Porn, executive produced by Bethenny Frankel, in which New York chef Michael Chernow hunts down the most popular #foodporn dishes; and digital series Tiny House The First 24, which tracks families’ first 24 hours in their new tiny houses.

A + E also treated upfront attendees to shareable moving pictures, also known as cinemagraphs, to promote the third season of Bates Motel, starring Freddie Higmore and Vera Farmiga. Attendees got to appear in the key-art posters that they could then send to their friends or post on social media.

According to A&E, “As a result of a successful cinemagraph launch in partnership with Flixel for season 3 of Bates Motel, A&E has decided to incorporate flixel and their cinemagraph platform at the 2015 Upfront as a content promotion medium that feels premium and new. Complete with a set build of the infamous Bates Motel house on the hill, all attendees can share their ‘I survived my night at the Bates Motel’ cinemagraph seamlessly across their social media platforms.”

The Flixel technology isn’t quite a GIF, but making key art a little more eye-catching and shareable is becoming a trend, with HBO sharing posters with moving elements across Twitter to promote True Detective.

Tags:


  Save as PDF