Encore has officially thrown its hat into the original programming ring.
Starz's sister channel announced on Wednesday that it will be launching its Encore Originals slate with three projects — an adaptation of the Herman Melville classic "Moby Dick," the U.S. premiere of a miniseries based on the Martina Cole crime thriller "The Take," and a documentary about comedian/telethon pioneer Jerry Lewis.
The three-hour "Moby Dick" miniseries, which stars William Hurt, Ethan Hawke and former "X-Files" star Gillian Anderson, will premiere on Aug. 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and conclude the following evening. Hurt will play the whale-plagued Captain Ahab, while Hawke will portray Ahab's first mate Starbuck, and Anderson will play Ahab's wife, Elizabeth. Donald Sutherland also stars in the RHI production.
The documentary "Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis," which debuts in the fall, will track the 85-year-old actor-producer and Muscular Dystrophy Assn. fundraiser's career. The feature-length documentary comes via Mansfield Avenue Productions, which also produced the 2004 Phyllis Diller documentary "Goodnight, We Love You."
Also debuting in the fall is the four-part miniseries "The Take," which will star Tom Hardy, Brian Cox and Kierston Warein. The ITV Studios Global Entertainment production originally aired on Britain's Sky in 2009.
