Next week sees the return of Spartacus, the Starz original series chronicling the life of the titular slave who rebelled against his Roman oppressors. The show’s official second season, called Spartacus: Vengeance, has been long in coming, and brings with it many questions in the wake of the tragic death of the first seasons’ star, Andy Whitfield.

The Flickcast recently partook in a discussion with series creator/exec. producer Steven S. DeKnight where, among other things, he talked about the transition from his original star to new Spartacus Liam McIntyre (check out our interview with the actor here), where the show is going from here and working with Joss Whedon.

On Liam capturing the essence of Andy Whitfield’s Spartacus -

…that’s really what drew us to Liam is that we didn’t want to try to duplicate (Andy). I mean, that will never happen. He was such a singular, amazing talent. But we wanted to find somebody that had the same base qualities of compassion. And I told all the actors when they auditioned that even though Spartacus may fly into a rage now and then, he never comes from a place of anger, it’s always from a place of a wounded heart. And we really felt like Liam captured that essence.

On no character being safe on the show - 

…on this show characters literally get the ax. I think really ultimately for me it’s always – it comes from the story is how is the story best served by a character death. I don’t ever want somebody to just die. It needs to have ramifications either emotionally or towards the plot. So that’s always the number one driving force of – on who do I kill.

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Spartacus: Blood and Sand was one of the most interesting and fun to watch shows to appear on TV in a long time. It’s combo ob blood, gore, sex, action and swordplay made it a big hit for Starz and a star of Andy Whitfield.

Sadly, Andy Whitfield was not able to continue with the series and passed away due to his illness. However, as they say in Hollywood: “The show must go on.” And it is with new Spactacus Liam McIntyre who, at first glance, slightly resembles Whitfield and also looks to be a worthy successor to him.

The upcoming second (we don’t count the prequel) season, titled Spartacus: Vengeance, takes place right after the events of the first season of Spartacus and tells the continuing story of the slave revolt and its ramifications throughout Rome. To get you ready for the new season, we’ve got a preview of the first minutes of the premiere episode with an introduction by Spartacus himself. Looks good. We’ll be watching.

Check out the video after the break. Spartacus: Vengeance premieres on Starz on Friday, January 27.

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With their new show Boss already off to a strong start and with previous hits like Spartacus: Blood and Sand, it looks like Starz is trying to find success again with another original dramatic series. This time around instead of modern day Chicago and Kelsey Grammer or ancient Rome and the late, great Andy Whitfield, we get 1959 Miami and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Magic City.

Not that we’re complaining. In fact, the show looks pretty good, judging from the trailer for it released today. Although, if you have Starz (as some of here at The Flickcast do) you’ve already seen this promo.

Seen it or not, you can check it out and realize, as we have, Starz is hear to stay in the dramatic series department. In addition to Morgan starring as a Miami hotelier and family man with ties to the mob, the series also features Olga Kurylenko as his wife and Danny Huston as a mob boss.

The series premieres in the spring. In the meantime, check out the trailer after the break.

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It seems HBO isn’t alone in the giving series a second season before they hardly run their first department. In fact, Starz has even done them one better.

The network has officially given the Kelsey Grammer government corruption drama Boss a second season of ten episodes. That’s great news for the show but what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that the show hasn’t even premiered on the network yet.

Don’t be too shocked, though. This move isn’t ompletely without precedent for Starz. The network did the same thing with Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

In case you’re not familiar with Boss (and no reason you should be as you can’t actually see it yet) it was created by writer Farhad Safinia and features Gus Van Sant making his TV directing debut. Grammer plays a ruthless Chicago mayor who has a secret that threatens to destroy him. Don’t they all.

Also in the show are Connie Nielsen, Jeff Hephner, Hannah Ware, Kathleen Robertson and Troy Garity. Production on Season 2 is reportedly set to begin in early 2012.

Look for the first season of Boss to debut on Starz on October 21.

If you’re as addicted to Instant Netflix as the rest of us, you’re probably glued to the New Releases feed to see what the benevolent Netflix gods will bring you to enjoy from the comfort of your bed/couch every night. One company who has helped aid in their vast streaming library is Starz, which expands to original series and films that make it to their movie channels.

It looks like that deal won’t last much longer, as it’s been announced that Starz will choose to discontinue their deal with Netflix and Instant Netflix, pulling their content from the servers. Here’s the press release from Starz.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Starz, LLC, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Albrecht, issued the following statement today regarding the status of affiliation agreement renewal discussions with Netflix.

“Starz Entertainment has ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix. When the agreement expires on February 28, 2012, Starz will cease to distribute its content on the Netflix streaming platform. This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content.”

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Writer Steven S. DeKnight has got more than enough geek cred to bring any doubtful idea to a new level of excellence even when most other writers would choke under the pressure.

The man has worked with Joss Whedon in the Buffyverse and Angelverse, taken on young Superman in Smallville, and now he’s getting his blood and iron on with Spartacus.

Season 2 is starting up soon and Steven gives us some insight on how exactly they can pick up after the epic season 1 finale, and how difficult it was switching from Andy Whitfield to new star Liam McIntyre.

Another thing DeKnight touched on was a franchise he has yet to work with The Flash. He once proposed a series to WB in which we follow a young Flash in high school, and now Steven thinks this is a perfect time to get the project off the ground.

See what he had to say and more after the jump.

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While Torchwood is a name that is becoming more an more familiar to American audiences since Starz started airing the this season, it’s been on the top list of quality TV for fans in the UK (or “in the know”) for years now.

The show started off as a small spinoff of the ratings juggernaut Doctor Who, and managed to slowly build an audience comparable to the material in which it was created. With series creator Russell T. Davies, the series managed to bounce all over the BBC networks and eventually get a primetime slot on one of their big channels.

With that growing success, it only made sense to bring the show here to the US, where the population could easily boost those ratings into something the UK rarely gets to see. That’s where Starz comes in.

We got the chance to speak with series star Eve Myles, who has the fortune of being with the series from the pilot, all the way through its reincarnation here on US soil. She mentioned how different the production has been, and how new and exciting this incarnation of the fictional Torchwood team is.

Check out what she had to say after the jump, and catch Torchwood: Miracle Day airing on Starz every Friday.

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Bill Pullman is one of those famed actors who’s resume has some of the weirdest stuff you’ll ever see on it. From playing the lead in a Mel Brooks spoof about Star Wars, to the troop-rallying president in Michael Bay’s Independence Day, and even to the child-killing death row inmate in Torchwood: Miracle Day, it seems like no role can disinterest the man.

Pullman joined the cast of Torchwood this season as they finally make their way to American soil and debut on Starz with Miracle Day. This time, he’s neither a wise-cracking hero nor the flag-waving veteran. This time he’s a stone cold killer.

In this season, the world is plagued by something that wouldn’t normally be considered a plague: not a single person on the planet can die. That includes Pullman’s character Oswald Danes, who was sentenced to lethal injection on that day. Things didn’t exactly go according to plan, and Pullman’s Danes is out on the streets.

We got a chance to speak with Bill about what drew him to this new-ish series and what he loves about the writing. We also got to ask him about how much of his famous Independence Day speech he remembers. The speech has lately had a new found love on the web, as even New York City comic Sean Kleier performs it in the most awkward of locations.

Take a look at our interview after the jump. Catch up on this season of Torchwood, only on Starz.

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While still remaining to be an excellent show, Starz’ Spartacus: Blood and Sand has gone through some pretty rough times. They originally lost their star Andy Whitfield due to illness, which prompted creator Steven S. DeKnight to write a prequel season in which Whitfield was not needed. Then Whitfield bounced back and forth about being able to return, but ultimately had to decline due to uncertainty.

Normally, a major recasting is not something a studio nor producers would want to go through, as an actor like Whitfield carried the show, but the fans demanded more of the show, so they went forward with the recasting. That brought Australian actor Liam McIntyre to the top of the pile.

While having no major roles in the past, McIntyre had the look of Spartacus down, and it didn’t hurt that he looked a bit like Whitfield, either.

We got the chance to speak with McIntyre about filling these pretty big sandals, what it was like working with an already-established crew, and getting into shape using the famed “celeb boot camp” that just about every action star have had to use in order to whip into shape for a role.

Check out our interview, and if you haven’t seen any of the upcoming season of Spartacus, check out the full trailer here.

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During the panel at Comic-Con in San Diego Starz presented info on the second season of it’s flagship drama Spartacus. Among the info released at the panel were the fact that previous Spartacus star Andy Whitfield is “doing very well.”

The panel also introduced Whitfield’s replacement, actor Liam McIntyre who called succeeding Whitfield “a really nice challenge… a great privilege and a great honor… a great responsibility.” Big sandals to fill indeed.

Regarding the plan for the new season, according to the panel and Exec. Producer Steven S. DeKnight: “There’s an episode where we kill a lot of people. This season is just epic. It’s grand scale… It’s just a gigantic, gigantic season.” Also, a power struggle is about to emerge between Spartacus, Crixus and Gannicus, which should prove interesting to say the least.

Check out the video after the jump. Spartacus: Vengeance premieres on Starz later this year.

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Not sure about you but pretty much everyone here at The Flickcast is really looking forward to the upcoming Starz/BBC series Torchwood: Miracle Day. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks to be even bigger, badder (in a good way) and more action-packed than all the previous seasons of Torchwood put together.

As we’ve had before with the first trailer, we’ve got another video to help get you ready for all the fun. In this one we got a look at a lot of the action, creatures and story of the series plus interviews with the top stars, writers and producers. All in, it’s a lot of info and makes the show look even cooler (as if that’s possible).

Click through for the video. Torchwood: Miracle Day stars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose. It premieres Friday, July 8th on Starz.

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Not much longer to wait now as the premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day is is only a little over a month away. In anticipation of that great day, we’ve got a brand new trailer for the show to share with you today.

In it you get the first real look at our favorite characters in action and also a peek at some of the new ones we will be seeing during the show’s run. It’s nice to see the gang back in action.

In case you’re not familiar with the new Torchwood, it will also feature new characters and actors including Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose.
Turning to the story, here’s what its all about:

It begins with a day when nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next, people keep aging, they get hurt and sick, but they never die. The result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people, resources are finite.

But this can’t be a natural event – someone’s got to be behind it. It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson (Phifer) investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?,” he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.

Check out the trailer after the break. Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres on July 8th at 10/9C on Starz.

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