Sky is forging ahead with its ambitions and today reveals a bumper lineup of new shows and films for 2021
In plans reaching out beyond 2021, Sky has shared details for a vast range of original drama, documentaries and films (in excess of 100). It’s way too much to cover completely here, but we’ll mention a range of new titles to bring you the sense of scale and ambition. This is on top of the recently announced STUDIOCANAL deal (see here). Even though Sky also has a 2019 deal with HBO for content, market shakeup (as covered here by Variety) in the future may mean a day when the parties go their separate ways, and like other streamers, Sky needs original content. Is there a point where content saturation kicks in? That’s a topic for a separate post.
First the films
We will start, though, with the Sky list of actors and films. The mix of British and American films featuring some of the biggest stars with Judi Dench, Eddie Izzard, Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Michael Caine, Lena Headey, Rita Ora, Raff Law, Patrick Stewart, Meera Syal, Andy Serkis, Noel Clarke, Adam Devine, Ken Jeong, Maggie Smith, Kristen Wiig, Samantha Morton, Tom Felton, Jonathan Pryce, Jim Broadbent, Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Janelle Monae, Alicia Vikander, Julianne Moore, Allison Janey, Mila Kunis, Juliette Lewis, Fiona Shaw, Kate Beckinsale, Stanley Tucci, Laverne Cox and many more.
The films include A Boy Called Christmas, the origin story of Father Christmas, re-imagined in a live action adaptation of Matt Haig’s best-selling novel, and family favourites such as Extinct and Monster Family 2. There are films inspired by true stories and real people with Save The Cinema, Creation Stories, Six Minutes to Midnight and The Glorias, action adventures with Jolt and SAS: Red Notice, comedies with The Comeback Trail and Breaking News In Yuba County and thrillers with Antebellum.
Original drama
Autumn 2021 sees Babou Ceesay (Guerilla, Rogue One) as a forensic pathologist in Wolfe; writer David Farr (The Night Manager) is adapting John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos for 2022; 2022 also sees Extinction about turning back time to avoid catastrophes (shades of Travelers); and autumn 2022 also brings This Sceptered Isle (starring Kenneth Branagh).
Original documentaries
In 2021 we get Liverpool Narcos (drugs boom in Liverpool), The Bambers: Murder at the Farm, Positive (marking 40 years of HIV / AIDS in Britain) and Gangs of Macaque Island. In 2022 Chernobyl ’86 tells the story of Chernobyl through newly discovered archive footage and original interviews with those who were there.
Original Comedies
A little less detail here; summer 2021 sees Russell Howard’s Back to the Future stand up show a travelogue in which the comedian gigs and tours Australia / New Zealand, and in 2022 Greg Davies created, writes and stars in Safe Space about a psychotherapist in a small market town
The bumper lineup in full
As we said at the beginning, it’s far too much to do more than skim here. You can read the full Sky press release here, but we advise you download their brochure instead, which you can find here.