The country’s first-ever female-centric and male-centric over-the-air broadcast television networks — Escape (For Women) and Grit (For Men) — have acquired the television rights to 135 demo-targeted motion pictures in a multi-year licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (WBDTD). The two new networks are part of Katz Broadcasting, a new company established by former Turner Broadcasting exec Jonathan Katz.
Univision Television Group will carry both Escape and Grit on stations representing more than 35% of U.S. television households, including in New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Miami. More distribution t/b/a.
Escape will target women 25-54 with a brand of programming anchored in stories of crime and mystery. Warner Bros. drama and thriller titles earmarked for Escape include: The contemporary classic Body Heat starring Kathleen Turner; Demi Moore in Disclosure; the Nicole Kidman thrillers Dead Calm and Malice; Kathy Bates creating Misery for James Caan, based on the Stephen King story; Bates in another King tale, Dolores Claiborne with Jennifer Jason Leigh; Copycat starring Sigourney Weaver; Blink with Madeline Stowe and Cate Blanchett as Charlotte Gray; John Grisham’s Presumed Innocent; Michelle Pfeiffer in Tequila Sunrise; Star 80 and more.
Action-oriented Grit will reach men 25-54 and be built around the classic male hero archetype with a focus on western, war and action theatrical motion pictures. Among the stars and titles headed to Grit in the WBDTD agreement: Clint Eastwood – As Dirty Harry in Sudden Impact, leading the charge in Kelly’s Heroes and also Bronco Billy; Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser; Sylvester Stallone in Cobra, Demolition Man and Victory; Jackie Chan starring in Rumble in the Bronx and Jackie Chan’s First Strike; Steven Seagal (Hard to Kill, Fire Down Below, On Deadly Ground and Out of Reach); Denzel Washington (Fallen) and more.
Grit also lands such westerns as the John Wayne classics Cahill, U.S. Marshall, Chisum and The Cowboys; Young Guns and Young Guns 2; The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt and such war and military movies as Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, Memphis Belle and Purple Hearts.
