Vice Media and A+E Networks team up for new channel which is expected to launch in early 2016
By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Vice Media and A+E Networks are joining forces for a cable channel to be programmed by Vice Media with lifestyle and documentary fare aimed at the 18-to-34 demographic.
The channel, with the working title Viceland, is expected to launch early next year and will take over A+E's H2 channel. It will be available in about 70 million homes.
In Tuesday's announcement, the partners said Viceland will feature hundreds of hours of new programming developed and produced entirely in-house by Vice by "the young creative minds" that are its "heart and soul."
Shane Smith, Vice co-founder and CEO, called the network "the next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global roll-out of networks around the world."
Oscar-winning writer-director Spike Jonze, a Vice partner and creative director, is overseeing the development of the channel, including show creation, production and brand identity.
"It feels like most channels are just a collection of shows," Jonze said. "We wanted Viceland to be different, to feel like everything on there has a reason to exist and a strong point of view."
The initial slate of prime-time shows will include "Gaycation" (with Ellen Page and Ian Daniel), "Huang's World" (with Eddie Huang), "Noisey" (with Zach Goldbaum), "Vice World of Sports" (with Sal Masekela) and "Weediquette" (with Krishna Andavolu).
The launch of Viceland on linear TV supplements Vice's continuing growth across online and mobile platforms, where its content includes a network of 10 digital verticals and a suite of YouTube channels.
Meanwhile, since 2013 Vice has produced a weekly news magazine for HBO, which in March announced that Vice Media would also produce a daily Vice newscast for the pay-cable outlet. Vice also will produce 32 long-form specials for HBO over the next four years, the network has said.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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