Owners of the streaming service and cable network, Epix, will have to learn a new name for the platform come next year. Deadline reports the home for Godfather of Harlem and horror series, From, will rebrand as MGM+. The relaunch comes five months after Amazon purchased the esteemed Hollywood studio’s catalog of TV and film titles.
“MGM is one of the most iconic and beloved brands from the golden age of entertainment,” Michael Wright, Head of MGM+, said via Deadline. “This rebrand is a promise to existing and new viewers that MGM+ is the place to find television that reflects and celebrates the legacy of the iconic MGM brand – cinematic programming with sophisticated storytelling that entertains, delights, surprises, and transports. MGM is television for movie lovers.”
According to Deadline, the streamer will continue providing quality content of both fiction and non-fiction fare. It will also be able to add MGM’s massive library of films including the James Bond and Rocky franchises as well as recent hits such as Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza.
In preparation for the January 15 launch date, per Deadline, several titles were announced to be in development on the streamer. For fans of the British soap drama, Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes is bringing Belgravia: The Next Chapter as a limited series. Based on the novel by Fellowes, it will be a sequel series to 2020’s Belgravia taking place 25 years later and focused on a new complicated love story. In a society where status determines one’s trajectory in life, Frederick Trenchard will fall for a new beau, Clara Dunn. But secrets from his past will pose a threat to their courtship.
Along with Fellowes’ series, Chris Brancato (Hoodlum, Narcos) will executive produce and serve as showrunner for Hotel Cocaine, via Deadline. The historical fiction series will be set in 1970s Miami and follow the disruptively lavish life of drug trafficker Roman Compte. Based on the real-life tales of The Mutiny Hotel, the series will examine the complex world of money, drugs, politics, and excess that proliferated Miami Beach at the time. Compte wore several hats as a Cuban-exile-turned-CIA operative all while orchestrating the million-dollar empire.
For non-fiction offerings, MGM+ will add a two-part docuseries from Frank Marshall (Alive, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and the Kennedy/Marshall Company focused on the music scene across a decade in San Franciso. Deadline reports San Francisco Sounds, its working title, will track the artists who rose to prominence between 1965 and 1975 including bands The Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jefferson Airplane along with solo legends like Janis Joplin.
Marshall will executive produce along with Alex Gibney (Zero Days, Taxi to the Dark Side), Darryl Frank (Natalie Wood:What Remains Behind, Laurel Canyon), Jeff Pollack (The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash, Rhythm + Flow), Justin Falvey (All the Way, Good Night Oppy), Stacy Offman (Crazy, Not Insane, The China Hustle), Richard Perello (Super Troopers, Beerfest), and Jeff Jampol (Janis: Little Girl Blue, When You’re Strange). Alison Ellwood (Women of Troy, The Go-Go’s) and Anoosh Tertzakian (The Clinton Affiar, Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All) will share directing the docuseries.
The future MGM+ will remain available through Prime Video, cable, satellite, and telco inside the U.S.