Chiller’s Thrillers Are Now Originals

NBCU Channel Set To Debut 'Passenger' Telefilm In 2011

By R.Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 7/26/2010 12:01:00 AM

NBC Universal-owned channel Chiller, which has scared viewers with acquired series and movies, will soon look to thrill its audiences with original fare beginning in 2011.
The four-year-old network will debut an original movie dubbed The Passenger next year, the first of what it hopes to be several original programs in the near future for the nearly 40 million-subscriber, ad-supported horror channel, according to Thomas Vitale, executive vice president of programming and movies.
The film, produced by Andrew van den Houten (Off - spring, The Girl Next Door) and directed by Lucky McKee (Masters of Horror, May, Red), is based on the novella of the same name by best-selling author Jack Ketchum. It follows the exploits of a young attorney who is unexpectedly forced to fight for her life after she is picked up on highway by a former high-school classmate after her car breaks down.
The network was expected to air a promotional video for the movie during the Comic-Con conference in San Diego this past Friday July 23 according to Vitale.
“This is still an emerging network and already we’re doing an original movie, so this is exciting for us,” Vitale said. “One of the best approaches is to base movies on underlying material, so to go out and find a great novella that’s known in the genre is the best approach for us for our first movie.”
The network, which will get some competition in the genre from the Oct. 1 launch of the Comcast and Sonyowned linear iteration of FearNet, currently airs such off - network series as The X-Files, Tales From the Darkside, Millennium and reality show Fear Factor, as well as horror films such as Saw II, Firestarter and Phantasm II.
Vitale said the network’s subscriber numbers and its move in May to become a Nielsen-rated service — the network averaged 98,000 viewers in primetime last month — helped set the stage for Chiller to produce original content. In addition, the network’s success with its Friday- night TV-movie premieres showed the audience’s enthusiasm for film content.
“What we want to do with the Chiller movies is to make them quality production and that have great teams behind them,” he said.
Vitale said the network will look to develop other movie titles in the near future, although he would not reveal specific titles. “We’d like to see a consistent flow of original programming on Chiller,” he added.