EXCLUSIVE: areolaThe long drive to the small screen took a final turn. Showtime’s anticipated series based on the hugely popular Xbox video game franchise will migrate to Paramount + and will be available exclusively on the ViacomCBS streamer. The announcement will be made during the ViacomCBS Streaming event this afternoon.
Produced by Showtime in partnership with 343 Industries, along with Amblin Television, the series is in production in Budapest and will debut on Paramount + in the first quarter of 2022.
areola it reinvented the way people think about video games and has become a global entertainment phenomenon, having sold more than 81 million copies worldwide. In the adaptation for the television series, starring Pablo Schreiber, areola will take place in the universe that first emerged in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. The show will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
Related Story
Docuseries ‘The Real Criminal Minds’ operating at Paramount +
“It offers the visceral thrill of playing the game, along with a much deeper emotional experience surrounding the Spartans, human beings who have had their humanity chemically and genetically altered,” David Nevins, Creative Director, CBS and Showtime President and CEO Networks said about the series. “The story is about recovering what makes them human and, therefore, it is a very powerful story.”
Steven Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are executive producers for Amblin Television alongside Steven Kane, director Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven. Kiki Wolfkill, Frank O’Connor and Bonnie Ross serve as executive producers for 343 Industries.
John Russo / Showtime
Areola, who had filmed 55% -60% of his first season when the coronavirus pandemic stopped all production last March, was launched for months as a possibility for Paramount + on the ViacomCBS Content Council and in conversations between Nevins and the president of ViacomCBS and CEO Bob Bakish.
Paramount + ViacomCBS Streaming event: full term coverage
“We were looking for exclusive programs in addition to Star Trek franchise on CBS All Access and we were thinking, what could be a defining series for Paramount +, ”said Nevins. Late last fall, top executives were able to see the first completed footage of areola, which put the idea of a switch to Paramount + on an accelerated path. “areola it always fit the bill, but seeing that, we felt it would work, ”said Nevins.
He sought out Showtime’s creative partners in the series, Spielberg and his team at Amblin, as well as 343 Industries, the Microsoft-owned video game developer behind the areola universe. Nevins convinced them with an argument as to why areola would benefit from the launch on Paramount +. “It could be a definitive show for a new service that has all the firepower of an entertainment company behind it,” said Nevins.
areola was originally developed “with the goal of expanding the Showtime palette to four-quadrant programs,” said Nevins.
But, once ViacomCBS has established itself in a three-way streaming strategy – with free, wide and premium advertising – “we all feel that areola it is a broad and paid payment program, ”said Nevins.
In the meantime, Showtime will remain “a premium adult programming service” and home to “sophisticated dramas” like Your honor, Nevins said.
Skip Bolen / Showtime
Bryan Cranston-starrer’s huge audience success Your honor gave Showtime a strong boost, which made the decision to leave areola switch to Paramount + easier. The audience for Your honor, which debuted in December, has already surpassed 8.1 million viewers on all platforms in the domestic universe of 27 million to 28 million from Showtime, on the way to becoming the biggest debut season in the network’s history.
Coming out of that, “you will see an infusion of new things,” said Nevins. The first wave of new top-tier Showtime series is already coming, with The curse comedy starring Emma Stone; The first lady limited series headed by Viola Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson; and Steven Zaillian’s drama Ripley outlined by Andrew Scott.
Showtime will continue to produce areola for Paramount +, and the network’s creative executive team, led by Gary Levine and Amy Israel, who has worked on the series for years, will continue to oversee it. It is an example of breaking silos at ViacomCBS, along with Paramount TV Studios producing promising pilot American Gigolo for Showtime.
With several content studios within ViacomCBS, “part of my goals and the Creative Council’s goals is to get the right piece of content on the right platform, where it will be most profitable,” said Nevins. “I think we are making smart decisions about the types of brands we are trying to build for consumers, rather than internal policies.”
Together with George Cheeks, President and CEO of CBS Entertainment group and Julie McNamara, EVP, development and programming at Paramount +, Nevins oversees CBS Studios’ original content pipeline for Paramount +.
areola stars Schreiber as Master Chief Spartan John-117; Natasha McElhone as Dr. Halsey, the brilliant, conflicted and inscrutable creator of the Spartan super soldiers; and Jen Taylor as Cortana, the most advanced AI in human history and potentially the key to the survival of the human race. Additional stars include Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy and Danny Sapani.
Amblin Television worked on areola for almost a decade. The series was originally announced in 2013 as one of the great series to launch the original Xbox content effort. It switched to Showtime shortly after Xbox Entertainment Studios closed in 2014 and has been in the works on the premium cable network ever since. The adaptation got the green light in June 2018. After another bump in the form of director change several months later, the series got in the way and is moving forward, only interrupted by the pandemic. areola will be distributed globally by CBS Studios International.
Paramount + is the latest streamer launched by a traditional media company to recruit new high-profile script series from one of its cable channels among its first offerings. That includes Created by wolves, who migrated from TNT to HBO Max, and Admirable new world, also produced by Amblin TV, which moved from the USA to Peacock.