A new report at Deadline on Wednesday cites HBO Max Chief Content Officer who told the crowd at this year’s Television Critics Association that Cinemax would not be producing any more original content. The word is also that original shows already on Cinemax would not be carried over to the new SVOD service which officially announced part of its slate and pricing late last year.
Fresh out of Cannes and continuing the string of Chinese patriotic thrills of late, a September start is in store for Strike Back, from China Film Group and Taihang Pictures. Arclight Films, home to such hits as Triple Threat, Wu Jing’s Wolf Warrior 2 and Donnie Yen’s S.P.L. and Special ID, is selling internationally and co-financing the new thriller to be shot in the deserts of Xinjiang, northwest China, and Hainan island in the south.
I pretty much already have my Friday night planned for the week of February 2. This comes with the newest trailer for series reboot, Strike Back over at Cinemax following its run in the U.K. late last year and with a fresh new unit facing down the world’s evils whatever it takes.
Hit Cinemax series Strike Back is making a stellar return amid a slate of fresh new serial content for the network in 2018. A new cast sets things in order for the rebooted show which has already begun airing in the U.K. at Sky One and will succeed its rollout for North America on February 2.
Disavowed and disbanded, the Section program is restored in order to track down a notorious terrorist following a brutal prison break. Tasked with covert military intelligence and high-risk operations, the resurrected unit embarks on a lethal manhunt that will uncover a vast web of interconnected criminal activity. As the team journeys across the Middle East and Europe, they uncover a deadly conspiracy that threatens to overwhelm them all and change the face of modern warfare forever.
Headlining are actors Warren Brown and Daniel MacPherson, and actresses Roxanne McKee and Alin Sumarwata with Nina Sosanya, Katherine Kelly and Trevor Eve also starring. The first official teaser arrived back in September while Cinemax now brings the sex, guts and attitude now on full display with military might in the first official trailer below.
I currently have my eye on at least two of the shows among the line-up eyeing for next year. Apart from that, Cinemax has made official its forthcoming broadcast slate for 2018 with plot details and premiere dates. It’s gonna be an exciting Winter for television.
CINEMAX has an explosive lineup set for Friday nights in 2018, with a varied slate of dynamic, action-packed original programming highlighted by new and returning series.
“We are very excited to present a slate that moves CINEMAX back in the direction of fun, often adrenalized, and always entertaining series,” says Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming. “We have strategically seized upon co-production opportunities that allow us to maximize the impact and production value of these shows for our viewers.”
Shows include (in chronological order):
STRIKE BACK (debuting Feb. 2) returns for a ten-episode fifth season of high-intensity action, introducing new members of Section 20. Disavowed and disbanded, the unit is restored to track down a notorious terrorist after a brutal prison break. Tasked with covert military intelligence and high-risk operations, the resurrected Section 20 embarks on a lethal manhunt that will uncover a vast web of interconnected criminal activity. As the team journeys across the Middle East and Europe, it uncovers a deadly conspiracy that threatens to change the face of modern warfare forever. Warren Brown (“Luther,” “The Dark Knight Rises”), Daniel MacPherson (“Infini”), Roxanne McKee (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”; “Crossfire”) and Alin Sumarwata (“Burning Man”) star. MJ Bassett returns to executive produce and direct.
RELLIK (April 13), an original six-part thriller, stars Richard Dormer (HBO’s “Game Of Thrones”) as Gabriel, an obsessive and disfigured UK police detective, and Jodi Balfour (CINEMAX’s “Quarry”) as Elaine, his bright and intense partner. Focusing on a serial killer, the story begins with the capture of the suspect and moves backwards in time to the crime itself. Obsessed with his hunt for the killer, Gabriel’s story becomes intrinsically bound to that of his suspect, asking the question, “What are the experiences that forge the people we all become?” Four episodes are directed by Sam Miller, and two by Hans Herbots.
C.B. STRIKE (June) is a dramatic series based on the best-selling crime novels written by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Starring Tom Burke (“Only God Forgives”), the story centers on Strike, a war veteran turned private detective, operating out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Although wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike’s unique insight and his background as a military police investigator prove crucial in solving three complex cases that have baffled the police. The series launches with three one-hour episodes based on the first book in the trilogy, “The Cuckoo’s Calling” (directed by Michael Keillor), followed by adaptations of the remaining two books, “The Silkworm” (directed by Kieron Hawkes) and “Career of Evil” (directed by Charles Sturridge), both of which will consist of two one-hour episodes.
OUTCAST (July) continues the suspenseful mystery of what lies behind the town of Rome’s supernatural manifestations in the second season of the Skybound/Image comic title by Robert Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta. Patrick Fugit (“Gone Girl,” HBO’s “Cinema Verité”) stars as Kyle Barnes, a young man who has been plagued by demonic possession all his life. Now, with the help of Reverend Anderson, played by Philip Glenister (“Kingdom of Heaven”), a preacher who believes he is a soldier in God’s holy war against the forces of evil, Kyle struggles to protect those he holds most dear, now that otherworldly threats prove greater than anticipated. His struggle will grow into a fight for all of his hometown, as he discovers the haunting secrets of his own past.
A return to action-packed television is exactly what the doctor ordered for fans keen on the hit Cinemax series, Strike Back since announcing a fifth season late last year. A 2018 premiere date will likely be the case as things usually go while we now have an official teaser to whet the appetite with a new set of badasses shepherding the heroic counterterrorism unit of Section 20.
You have to give it up to cable television, because their programming standards are set way beyond the family friendly millieu of other local TV networks. So when you look at a show like the hit Cinemax series, Strike Back, you really are looking at one of the most intense and substantive action shows in the history of television, and that’s far from anything you would deem as an exaggeration.
The show, based on the title novel by former SAS soldier Chris Ryan, ran up to five seasons this year since 2011 starring Phillip Winchester and Sullivan Stapleton in the respective roles of a British and American soldier – two reluctantly-partnered members of a secret counterterrorism unit working for the British government to take on high-risk missions and foil deadly international plots by the world’s most elusive foes. The series has very much evolved in all of its layers from the cast and overall atmosphere throughout the storyline with each relationship deeply affected through triumph and tragedy, with this last season this year foreseeing what’s been hyped as the final mission for our heroes of Section 20 as they take on a North Korean terrorist played cunningly by the legendary Michelle Yeoh.
At this rate, whatever this means for the show, it may not necessarily mean the end. Word from EW now brings the hopeful prospects of a feature film from London-based Left Bank Pictures and Sky Media. The production is currently in talks to bring Cinemax on board with the likely return of Winchester and Stapleton for production to commense in South America should a deal be met.
I couldn’t be more happier for this news with such an amazing storyline and line-up of characters. There’s been a few in this series who have tragically departed and I absolutely hate that this may well factor into what lies ahead for the potential film, but I sincerely hope this lends an opportunity to perfectly build on what’s been a hugely fun and exciting TV run.
If you’ve missed out on this show at all in the last several years, I really don’t know what you’re doing with your life. The show is perpetual, consistent and perfectly paced amid the necessary character development, action suspense, drama, levity, and sex (LOTS of it…Sully‘s been a busy bee in this department, and if you watch the show, again, no exaggeration there).
Both lead actors are currently off to a great start with their own respective TV shows on NBC, with Winchester opposite Wesley Snipes in the Vegas-set thriller, The Player, and Stapleton in the Jaimie Alexander-led Blindspot.
Check back for details.
Based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel, Xerxes, and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster 300, this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield—on the sea—as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war.
With world security storylines ripped from today’s headlines, the second season begins with Sgt. Damien Scott (Stapleton) on a standard security mission in Kenya and Section 20 facing a new boss, Rachel Dalton (Rhona Mitra). Now out of the unit, Sgt. Michael Stonebridge (Winchester) is training recruits at a military base, staying close to home and being a dutiful husband. When Scott¹s mission takes an unexpected dangerous turn, the two are back together working to retrieve an elusive box of nuclear triggers coveted by everyone from Al Qaeda to the expatriate leader of a mercenary army.
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