The Paramount+ streaming service is ready to play with the big guys now.
That will be clear March 24, when the long-awaited (VERY long-awaited) “Halo” (shown here) arrives. Or May 5, when a new “Star Trek” series begins, shortly after two others return. Or sometime later, with new versions of “Frasier,” “Flashdance,” “Fatal Attraction” and more, including music-based “Grease” and “Urban Cowboy.”
“We’re taking some big swings,” said Nicole Clemens, the network’s president of original content.
And some little ones. At Television Critics Association sessions, the network said it’s renewing “SEAL Team,” “The Game” and “Mayor of Kingston”; that follows renewals of “Evil” and “The Good Fight.”
Most of those are based on previous network-TV shows, sometimes in a more-modest version. “SEAL Team,” accustomed to 22-episode seasons on CBS, will have a 10-episode one.
But that’s just one part of what Tanya Giles, the streamer’s chief programming officer, calls a “something for everyone” approach. At times, Paramount+ still looks like its old identity, CBS All Access; at other times, it looks like Disney+ … or maybe Disney Plus More.
For fantasy fans, Disney has Marvel and “Star Wars”; Paramount counters with:
— “Star Trek,” which will soon have five series – “Strange New Worlds” joining “Discovery” (which returns Feb. 10), “Picard” (March 3) and the animated “Lower Deck” and “Prodigy.” In the works are “Section 31” and an unspecified series.
— And “Halo,” with what producer Justin Falvey calls “massive size and scale.”The “Halo” videogame has been around since 2001, with persistent efforts to turn it into a movie or series. Paramount has been working on it for eight years — first for Showtime, then for Paramount+. Pablo Schreiber, who stars as Master Chief, said he’s been doing scenes in Budapest for two years.
That’s a big leap from the days when CBS All Access offered a huge library but few new shows. Modest ones – “No Activity,” “One Dollar,” “Tell Me a Story,” etc. – didn’t grab business on their own.
The network became Paramount Plus last March 4; “we’re only in our first year,” Giles said. It has a hit with “1883,” the “Yellowstone” prequel. Shows in the works include:
— “The Offer,” April 28. The 10-part mini-series takes a sometimes-whimsical look at how a novice producer and an almost-failed writer, facing steep odds, saw “The Godfather” become a classic.
— Revivals of “Frasier,” “Reno 911,” “Beavis and Butt-Head” and possibly “Criminal Minds.”
— TV versions of movies. They include “Urban Cowboy,” “Flashdance,” “Fatal Attraction” and a “Grease” that focuses on the “Pink Ladies.”
— And some series that aren’t spin-offs. “Rabbit Hole” is a Kiefer Sutherland espionage tale. “Guru Nation” re-unites Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, playing opposing cult leaders. “Players” focuses on a winless e-sports team. And “Happy Face” is based on the true story of the woman who learned, as a teen-ager, that her dad was a serial killer.