Epix Bows Four-Day Thanksgiving Movie Marathon

By : Erik Gruenwedel | Posted: 23 Nov 2009
egruenwedel@questex.com

Epix, the high-definition pay-TV and online streaming channel co-owned by Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount Studios, offered users through the Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 29) access to a nonstop marathon slate of action films.

Epix launched Oct. 30 on Verizon Communication’s FiOS TV (in 2.5 million households) and is set to possibly bow on satellite TV operator Dish Network with 13 million subscribers.

Beginning Thanksgiving Day, Epix will present The Indy 500: 500 Minutes of Indiana Jones. The cinematic marathon features Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Iron Man and The Hunt for Red October will follow those screenings.

On Nov. 27, Epix followed Flash Gordon with a screening of all three “RoboCop” movies.

The next day, Nov. 28, Epix offered a full day of James Bond, including the original Casino Royale, GoldenEye, The Living Daylights, Moonraker and You Only Live Twice.

Other titles include Red Dawn, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Black Rain, The Untouchables and The Golden Child, among others.

Epix ended the holiday weekend screening with the television premier of sci-fi thriller Cloverfield.

FiOS TV is presenting the aforementioned Epix slate as its “Feast of Fury” holiday weekend.

Recently Epix announced that veteran actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard is slated to star in “Tough Trade,” the first original one-hour drama series for Epix.

Directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), “Tough Trade” stars Shepard as the patriarch of a three-generation Nashville music family whose penchant for drink, debauchery and divorce has left them both morally corrupt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Tough Trade” was created and written by Chris Offutt, executive story editor on “True Blood” and co-producer on “Weeds.”

Filming begins Dec. 3 in Nashville.

Epix previously said it would offer subscribers post-Jan. 1, 2008 theatrical releases from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies, and post-Jan. 1, 2009 box office movies from Lionsgate, United Artists and MGM.

Separately, Akamai Technologies announced that it would deliver and manage Epix’s high-definition programming across TV, video-on-demand and online distribution platforms.