{"id":2552,"date":"2014-03-14T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T00:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/"},"modified":"2014-03-14T00:01:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T00:01:36","slug":"new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/","title":{"rendered":"New Miniseries ‘Ascension’ Gets the Greenlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael O’Connell \/ The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n

Syfy is getting back into the miniseries business. The genre-focused cable network has completed a deal for a six-hour event series, in the spirit of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, set for a November premiere.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u00a0has learned that Syfy has given the greenlight to\u00a0Ascension<\/em>\u00a0— created and written by\u00a0Philip Levens\u00a0(Smallville<\/em>), who will also serve as executive producer and showrunner. Universal Cable Productions and Lionsgate Television are co-financing and distributing the project, produced in Montreal, Quebec, by Sea To Sky Studios in association with\u00a0Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions.<\/p>\n

Part\u00a0Battlestar\u00a0<\/em>and part\u00a0Downton Abbey<\/em>,\u00a0Ascension\u00a0<\/em>takes place on a century-long space shuttle journey, where hundreds of men, women and children left Earth behind at the start of the Cold War. Nearly 50 years after their covert 1963 mission launched with the intention of colonizing a new world, a young woman is mysteriously murdered, prompting the population to question the nature of the mission as they near the point of no return.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyfy is more committed than ever to bringing to life epic event television,\u201d said network president\u00a0David Howe. \u201cWe have a rich history in this arena, from\u00a0Steven Spielberg\u2019s\u00a0Taken<\/em>\u00a0to the highly acclaimed mini that launched the\u00a0Battlestar Galactica<\/em>\u00a0series, to reimagined takes on classic tales such as\u00a0Alice<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Tin Man<\/em>. In keeping with that grand tradition, we are delighted to bring this thrilling, provocative and intelligent event to our fans later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been since 2009\u2019s\u00a0Alice<\/em>\u00a0that Syfy aired a miniseries. And like\u00a0Battlestar<\/em>\u00a0before it, Syfy is keeping its options open for\u00a0Ascension<\/em>\u00a0to serve as a jumping-off point for a potential TV series. Howe and new executive vp original content\u00a0Bill McGoldrick\u00a0<\/strong>recently spoke with\u00a0THR<\/em>\u00a0about\u00a0plans for the network, which include a big push back into the miniseries space and a desire to launch a new space opera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be the best science-fiction channel that we possibly can, and in some respects, that means going back to the more traditional sci-fi\/fantasy that fans often say they feel we\u2019ve exited,\u201d Howe said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to occupy that space in a way we haven\u2019t for the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil Levens has crafted a bold and surprising spin on the space opera,\u201d said McGoldrick. \u201cWe are equally excited to embark on this journey with our partners at UCP, Sea to Sky, Lionsgate, Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions and also with\u00a0Mark Stern, who shepherded this project while at Syfy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blum and former Syfy originals exec Stern join Levens as EPs along with Sea to Sky Studios’\u00a0Ivan Fecan,\u00a0Tim Gamble\u00a0and\u00a0Brett Burlock.<\/p>\n

Syfy plans to premiere\u00a0Ascension<\/em>\u00a0in November and air it through December.<\/p>\n

Levens is repped by Paradigm and Stone and Meyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael O’Connell \/ The Hollywood Reporter Syfy is getting back into the miniseries business. The genre-focused cable network has completed a deal for a six-hour event series, in the spirit of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica, set for a November premiere. The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0has learned that Syfy has given the greenlight to\u00a0Ascension\u00a0— created and written by\u00a0Philip Levens\u00a0(Smallville), who will … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael O’Connell \/ The Hollywood Reporter Syfy is getting back into the miniseries business. The genre-focused cable network has completed a deal for a six-hour event series, in the spirit of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica, set for a November premiere. The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0has learned that Syfy has given the greenlight to\u00a0Ascension\u00a0— created and written by\u00a0Philip Levens\u00a0(Smallville), who will … Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gearbox_admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/\",\"name\":\"New Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Miniseries ‘Ascension’ Gets the Greenlight\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/\",\"name\":\"Thunderbird Entertainment\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41\",\"name\":\"Gearbox_admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gearbox_admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment","og_description":"Michael O’Connell \/ The Hollywood Reporter Syfy is getting back into the miniseries business. The genre-focused cable network has completed a deal for a six-hour event series, in the spirit of\u00a0Battlestar Galactica, set for a November premiere. The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0has learned that Syfy has given the greenlight to\u00a0Ascension\u00a0— created and written by\u00a0Philip Levens\u00a0(Smallville), who will … Continued","og_url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/","og_site_name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","article_published_time":"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":633,"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/social-share.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gearbox_admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gearbox_admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/","name":"New Miniseries 'Ascension' Gets the Greenlight - Thunderbird Entertainment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-14T00:01:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2014\/03\/14\/new-miniseries-ascension-gets-the-greenlight\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Miniseries ‘Ascension’ Gets the Greenlight"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/","name":"Thunderbird Entertainment","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/41eb8208032d7ee9602156e61d6f6c41","name":"Gearbox_admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/239363dc97071e1a4eb9d0cc6971f646?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gearbox_admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thunderbird.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/author\/gearbox_admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}