Starz has renewed its hit drama series BMF for a fourth season prior to the show’s third season debut on March 3.

The series, executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, follows the exploits of two brothers leading a legendary Detroit-based crime family. The series is one of Starz's most watched shows, averaging 10.6M multiplatform views per episode.

The series stars Demetrius Flenory Jr., Da’Vinchi, Russell Hornsby, and Michole Briana White. Along with Jackson, BMF is executive produced by Randy Huggins, Heather Zuhlke, Anthony Wilson and Anne Clements.

“Fans can’t get enough of the history in the making that is BMF,” Starz president of programming Kathryn Busby said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to start working on a new season that will continue bold storytelling of the legend of the Flenory brothers that has proven to resonate so deeply with our viewers.” 

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Fox Entertainment have entered into a nonexclusive, multi-project broadcast direct deal that will see Jackson, through his production company G-Unit Film & Television, develop scripted dramas, live-action comedies and animated series that would air on Fox. 

Jackson’s TV work includes the Starz drama Power, in which he starred and was an executive producer and director. Spinoffs Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Power Book IV: Force followed. 

“Whether it’s music, film or television, Curtis always delivers premium entertainment that captivates millions of fans across the globe,” Michael Thorn, president of scripted programming, Fox Entertainment, said.  “He is the rare multi-hyphenate with a deft hand at storytelling, no matter the format or medium, and we’re looking forward to developing new and exciting series for Fox with him and his team.”

Jackson founded G-Unit in 2005. Production will soon begin on season three of G-Unit series Black Mafia Family on Starz. G-Unit is also in development on the scripted series Fightland and Queen Nzinga at Starz. G-Unit also produced ABC drama For Life and Hip Hop Homicides at WeTV.  

“I am excited to formalize a partnership with Michael Thorn and Fox that will allow G-Unit Film & Television to focus on putting multiple series on Fox, a perfect broadcast destination for G-Unit Film & Television content while our premium, streaming, scripted and non-scripted slates continue to grow in all directions,” said Jackson. 

Series created under the deal will be owned by Fox Entertainment and produced by Fox Entertainment Studios, in collaboration with G-Unit Film & Television. ■

Starz has greenlit a third season of its family drama BMF on the heels of huge premiere numbers for the show’s second season debut.

The series, which follows the exploits of two brothers leading a legendary Detroit-based crime family, drew 4.1 million multiplatform viewers across its January 6 second season premiere, according to the premium service.

BMF stars Demetrius Flenory, Russell Hornsby and La La Anthony, and is executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Randy Huggins, Heather Zuhlke, Anthony Wilson and Anne Clements.

“BMF captures the essence of Detroit through elevated, gritty storytelling and our fans have passionately responded to this show more than ever before,” said Starz President of Original Programming Kathryn Busby in a statement. “Following such a strong debut with season two, we’re thrilled to continue to expand on the incredible story of the Flenory brothers as they change the game by writing their own rules. We can’t wait to see what our extraordinary producers and cast deliver next.”■

Starz said it is in development with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson on a new drama called Fightland, set in the world of British boxing.

Jackson, who is an executive producer, is also an executive producer of Starz’s Power universe.

Writers Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith have signed onto the project.

"Fightland embodies the stakes, swagger and ambition that collaborations between Starz and 50 Cent have come to represent," said Kathryn Busby, president, original programming at Starz. "We are excited to be working with Daniel and Marlon who are brilliant writers and whose authentic take will bring this global story to life."

Starz said the series follows a retired disgraced world champion fighter drawn into the corrupt underbelly of the sport after the disappearance of his childhood best friend and training partner. To save his friend, the troubled fighter will have to return to a way of life that nearly destroyed him – one that cost him everything to leave behind.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson will executive produce through his G-Unit Film & Television along with Francis Hopkinson and Katharine Leadbetter of Expanded Media who will also produce Fightland for Starz. Sebastian Arboleda, VP, original programming, and Alex Alberts, director, original programming, will both oversee the series on behalf of Starz. ■

Discovery Plus has greenlit a new true crime series from Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson on a new series that will highlight female crime bosses.

The series, Confessions of A Crime Queen, each season will profile a larger-than-life woman who created and led a multi-million-dollar criminal empire before a dramatic fall from power, according to the streaming service. The series will combine documentary and scripted genres, and will feature an A-list actress who will also interview the real life female crime lord at the center of the story. 

Confessions of A Crime Queen is slated to debut in 2022, according to Discovery Plus. 

Also Read: Discovery Plus Sets May ‘40 Year Old Property Virgin’ Launch Date

“Discovery Plus is delighted to partner with Curtis, G-Unit Film & Television, Goodbye Pictures and Lionsgate on this ambitious and innovative project,” said Lisa Holme, Discovery Plus group senior VP commercial content and strategy, in a statement. “Combining our unparalleled home for original true crime content with his vision for how to tell these stories in a new way will give true crime fans a fresh perspective on the genre.” 

Starz has greenlit a new drama series from Power executive producer and hip-hop entrepreneur Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The series, Black Mafia Family, is the true story account of two brothers -- Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory -- who rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980’s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in this country, according to network officials.

“This is a project Curtis has always been incredibly passionate about and we are excited to have him as our partner in bringing it to life,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, Starz president and CEO in a statement. “Black Mafia Family has all the hallmarks of a great drama, from the larger-than-life Flenory brothers to the deadly, high-stakes world they inhabited. This series is going to be an incredible ride for audiences around the world.”

Black Mafia Family is produced through Jackson’s G-Unit Film and Television in association with Starz and Lionsgate Television. Terri Kopp and Anthony Wilson also serve as executive producers on the series.

Starz will end its most watched drama series Power with the show's upcoming sixth season, which launches in August, the network announced Thursday.

The series will finish with a 15-episode sixth season debuting Aug. 25, the network said. Power, which is executive produced by Courtney Kemp and Curtis “50-Cent” Jackson, is the second most-watched original drama series on premium cable networks behind Game Of Thrones, and the number one rated show among African-American viewers, according to Starz.

Starz president of programming Carmi Zlotnik in a statement hinted about potential Power spinoffs in the near future.

“Season six brings us to the end of what we know is just the first chapter of the Power story. However, as one chapter comes to an end, another will begin,” said Zlotnik. “Courtney Kemp and 50 Cent have created a world rich with complex and dynamic characters and there are a number of stories we plan to tell as we continue to explore and expand the Power universe.”

The upcoming season will mark the directorial debut of Jackson, as well as the return of director Anthony Hemingway (The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story), who helmed the first two episodes of the series when it debuted in 2014 and will helm the show’s finale, according to Starz.

The series stars Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, Joseph Sikora, Rotimi, Alani “La La” Anthony, Jerry Ferrara, Shane Johnson, Michael Rainey Jr. and Larenz Tate.

RELATED: Courtney Kemp, 50 Cent discuss their hopes and vision for Power's future (Video). 

The season four finale of Starz’s drama series Power set a season-high ratings record in Nielsen Live+3 ratings, according to network officials. 

The Sept. 3 episode drew 2.8 million viewers in Live+3 ratings, according to Nielsen. Overall, the series' season four drew 2.4 million viewers, the third most-watched premium series behind HBO’s Game Of Thrones (13.1 million) and Ballers (3.3 million), according to network officials.

Power, which stars Omari Hardwick, Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, Joseph Sikora and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, also finishes its fourth season as the top scripted drama in premium pay TV for 2017 among African-American viewers in total viewer ratings, said network officials.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Actor, producer and hip hop artist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will look to add to his burgeoning entertainment empire through a recently signed development deal with Starz, a pact that has him creating several new projects for the premium service. Jackson, currently executive producer and co-star of Starz’s hit drama series Power, will create and executive-produce a new superhero-themed series for Starz dubbed Tomorrow, Today through his production company, G-Unit Film and Television.

Jackson spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead after Starz’s Television Critics Association Summer Tour panel on Power. They discussed his new deal with Starz, which runs through 2018, as well as his efforts to juggle his musical and television aspirations. An edited version of the interview appears below.

Related >MCN Original Video: Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Courtney Kemp Discuss Power Season 3

MCN:What does it mean for you as a TV producer to have this new deal with Starz?

CJ: It’s exciting. It’s allowing me to have a platform to bring my ideas out. It’s a perfect fit for me to be in premium cable because things can be made now that are more graphic, so it’s allowing me to be as graphic as the material that’s being created out here not only in the youth culture, but in the hip hop culture, so it’s exciting. What makes it exciting for me is to be able to present that content to a wide audience.

MCN:What should viewers expect fromTomorrow, Today?

CJ: It’s a superhero-themed show and it’s about a doctor that works for the U.S. government and is developing a serum to create super soldiers. Following the discontinuation of the program, he continues to work on it and ends up working in the infirmary of the state penitentiary, and gives the serum to the perfect lab rats — the inmates. One of the people that he tested on actually gets out of the prison. He was wrongfully convicted of a crime to begin with, and now he’s trying to escape the aggressive nature of South Side Chicago.

MCN:You have your hand in so many things — music, TV production, you’re even a boxing promoter. Is there one thing you like most?

CJ: When you get conditioned for one thing, other things start to become a challenge. I’ve been writing music full-time since 1997 — I could stop this interview now and write a song — so I don’t need to be in a specific setting or circumstances to write music. Then the fun part of this challenge is producing. I don’t see any limitations with what you can do in film. I always try to sustain the artistic integrity of the projects that I’m involved in and I concentrate on quality control. People scream for more episodes ofPower— I was screaming for it to be better. I think the audience would appreciate that. If it’s as good as we want it to be, then they will feel like they want more of it and come back for the next episode or season.

MCN:Are you surprised at the success and longevity ofPower, with Starz recently adding a fourth and fifth season?

CJ: Actually, I’ve been saying seven seasons since we started. Everybody asked me, “How long do you think it will go?” and I’ve always said seven, so we’re almost there.

Starz and actor/producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will develop a superhero vigilante series as part of an extended production deal between the two parties.

Jackson, who serves as executive producer of Starz’s hit series Power, will develop Tomorrow, Today, a drama about a veteran from the south side of Chicago who, after being falsely imprisoned, becomes the personal experiment of a mad prison doctor trying to create the perfect man – and an unstoppable killing machine. The prisoner eventually escapes and uses his newfound powers for good.

Anthony Cipriano (Bates Motel, 12 and Holding) and Dan Kay (I.T.) will executive produce Tomorrow, Today, with Kirkland Morris serving as producer, according to Starz.

The series extends Jackson’s existing overall deal with Starz another year, into September 2018, to develop new projects for the network with G-Unit Film & Television Inc.

“We’re excited to develop this series with Curtis to showcase his producing skills with this unique storyline,” said Carmi Zlotnik, managing director of Starz.

Related: MCN Original Video: One-on-One with 'Power' executive producer Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson and creator Courtney Kemp

Starz’s original series Power set a network ratings record for its season three premiere Sunday.

The original drama averaged 2.26 million viewers in Nielsen live + same day ratings, beating out the 1.46 million viewers set earlier this year for the season two premiere of Outlander, said network officials.

Over three airings, Power averaged 3.37 Million (Live+SD) in total over the three Sunday night airings, the most ever for an originals series season premiere.

“We are thrilled Power continues to be a force in its third season with this record setting performance - something very few shows ever achieve,” said Starz president and CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement. “We are proud to say the show is must-watch TV and has helped to establish Starz as a Sunday destination for viewers.”

Starz CEO Chris Albrecht’s recent schedule in New York City reflects a busy time for his premium network. There were premieres for the new Steven Soderbergh-produced series The Girlfriend Experience and for returning romance hit Outlander and, related to the Scottish kilt drama, the Tartan Day Parade to attend. (Outlander star Sam Heughan was grand marshal .) That’s not counting the phone calls he planned to make to key distributors, letting them know Starz was about to announce a new direct-to-consumer (but not cannibalistic) online service on April 5.

“It has been said to me by the people that run these companies that of the many things that have been done by our fellow premium services, one of the things that pissed off people the most was that they didn’t get a heads up. And we’re not that kind of partner,” Albrecht told Multichannel News editors during a March 30 visit to the magazine’s offices. With him were communications executive vice president Theano Apostolou and global marketing and product planning president Jeffrey Hirsch, the former Time Warner Cable executive who’s also been busy communicating with affiliates about Encore channels rebranding into Starz Encore.

When Albrecht, a former HBO chief, joined Starz in January 2010, it was a movie service experimenting with some original shows, like Party Down. Now it’s tracking to a goal of 85 to 90 new original series episodes per year. Owned by John Malone’s Liberty Media when Albrecht joined, Starz was spun off in 2013 and has been a takeover rumor on a continuous basis. It also has started to produce real hits with passionate viewer bases, including Outlander, pirate drama Black Sails and the top-rated, New York City-based Power, from executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

Albrecht and company spoke with MCN and B&C editorial director Mark Robichaux, editor Kent Gibbons, programming editor R. Thomas Umstead and senior finance editor Mike Farrell about the state of Starz and the pay TV business. Edited highlights follow.

MCN:Let’s get this out of the way: What can you tell us now about a sales process? Is anything imminent?

Chris Albrecht: I can tell you very directly there’s never been a formal sales process. If there had been a formal sales process, we wouldn’t be here talking about this stuff because someone else would own Starz. You don’t put together a formal sales process and then end up not selling the company to somebody. There have always been lots of strategic discussions.

The interesting thing, if you look at the media business — with all this talk of consolidation and everything and all the sense that putting parts of these companies together, whether it be people looking at what’s going to happen with Sumner [Redstone at Viacom] or the changing of the guard at Fox or now that [Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeff Bewkes] has reduced Time Warner to a digestible piece. So many questions for so many companies, including the free radicals that Malone talks about.

What you realize is that the media business is not a business run by people who are dealmakers. They may be show-makers, they may be schedule-makers, they are terrific executives, but they’re not deal guys. Bewkes has done a great job spinning off stuff , Sumner has split up stuff , Rupert [Murdoch of Fox] does some giant things, [Disney CEO Bob] Iger’s got his four, five, six billion dollar price range that he’s done a wonderful job at. But this is not a business where M&A is …

MCN:Driving everything.

CA: If you’re a Liberty [Media] company, which I had the opportunity and the good fortune to be a part of, you’re working with guys who live for this, right? These are deal guys. All the value they’ve created, everything that’s happened in John’s career has been deals. It’s not like John decided he wanted to be a cable operator. John Malone is, you know, a visionary in this space. So of course there are always conversations going on. And unfortunately everyone has big mouths. People see you walking out of a meeting, and they assume that there is a transaction that’s imminent and then, sort of irresponsibly — no offense to the press, you guys not being one of those transgressors — put out information that is completely unfounded, denied, and then it just becomes almost laughable, if it wasn’t for the fact that it affected so many people’s lives in such a kind of stressful way, the employees of Starz and stuff like that.

But it’s my job, it’s our job, to continue to find ways to build the business. And I firmly believe, John Malone firmly believes, [Liberty CEO] Greg Maffei firmly believes, I think the board of Starz firmly believes that aligning ourselves in some way with other people who can create better opportunities in a combined structure just makes sense. We could be the people that are the leaders. We don’t have to be bought in order to have that happen, and we haven’t been sitting back, waiting for someone to come put us out of our misery. What we have been doing is taking care of our knitting.

MCN:It sounds as if you don’t feel the need to merge or do a deal with anyone right away.

CA: I don’t. I do believe that eventually we will see those kinds of deals being made in the space that Starz lives in. I do believe that Starz is a logical, valuable and potentially powerful addition in a partnership or in a combination structure. We’re unique in our business model. And we’re just getting started on what I think is the new era for Starz. And it’s a direction that people are trying to go in. We’re a small company, relatively speaking. But we still make a lot of money at really high margins. And inside most companies, that ain’t chopped liver. We’re large enough to make a difference, we’re small enough to be nimble on our own and we’re small enough to fi t into a lot of different kinds of structures.

Look, do I think something is going to happen eventually? I think a lot is going to happen eventually. Do I think Starz is going to be a part of that? I think it would be foolish for us to not try and sail in those waters if there is value to be created because our job is to increase value for the shareholders.

From my point of view, Starz is an undervalued asset right now because the opportunity far outweighs the risk. We’re stabilized. We’ve got our product in order. We’ve got a new technology that we think is going to offer us a great opportunity. Now let’s go grow the top line. Now let’s go show people that Starz is an active company with a long and healthy future. And if people want to come in and out of the stock, great. If people are coming in for M&A, maybe there will be a deal tomorrow, maybe there will be a deal three or four years from now. In that period of time, however, we believe in the value of our stock, in the value and strength of our company.

MCN:Isn’t there a fairly high amount of risk now, though, to be a premium channel that’s either number two, number three, in that category in a world where people are paying $9 for Netflix or they’re adding on Amazon Prime, where they have so many different options?

CA: There is always more competition, and I think some of the decisions we’ve made show that we can play in that space. We also have the opportunity of still having a pretty good business with guys that aren’t going away any time soon.

We know we’re not going to be Netflix but we can be somewhere in between a true premium channel and an SVOD service. And if we can grow our business effectively, then we are just a good stock to have in your portfolio. If we can put on really compelling programming that fits in some of the cracks that we see and appeal to audiences that respond to our brands and give them not just the products but the features that they can access that stuff , then I think … Look, any business that continues to grow is a good business.

MCN:Stepping back, then, where is Starz at this moment in its evolution, based on your strategic vision?

CA: This is an important time for Starz. For the last six years or so, we’ve been kind of cleaning up some business decisions that had been made by Starz to go into the movie business; to make a Netflix deal; as a part of Liberty to have tracker stocks, two tracker stocks, one tracker stock; to be reattributed to Liberty; to be spun out by Liberty; the decision to go into original programming; the decision and the announcement for Liberty to spin away from Starz. You know, along with just doing your job of selling subscriptions and working with [multichannel video program distributors] and growing an original programming lineup, that’s been more than a full-time job.

We’ve been looking at an evolving landscape in the media business, and I think all of those things, for us, have pointed to a lot of opportunity for the subscription television business, premium channels, of which we consider there to be basically three — us, Showtime and HBO. The SVOD services aside — Netflix is a true SVOD service; Hulu, kind of a hybrid; and Amazon, a great retailer that has decided to give video away for free until recently they made a deal with us and Showtime and a few others.

In looking at that evolving landscape, we thought that it was important that we preserve the very important historical relationships with the largest video suppliers in the world, which are the MVPDs, and yet take advantage of what seems to be now an inexorable pull towards alternative choices, be it alternative choices in the packaging offered by the traditional distributors or be it alternative choices offered by new entrants who are looking to create an architecture of virtual MVPDs or wholesalers.

And then to look at this opportunity to say, OK, the biggest obstacle to the expansion of premium subscribers over the decades that there have been premium channels has been two things. One is content objectors, who don’t want uncut, uncensored movies in their homes. The other is just price. As basic-tier channels and sports rights and everything just pushed the price of entry up, with the premium being the cherry on top, that became more out of reach of even more people.

And yet, when you look at the content that people want to see and the features that they want to use and the way they want to watch it — commercial free, at their leisure — you think, OK, well the premiums, we’ve got [multiplex channels], we’ve got choices, we’re ad-free, we’ve got the kind of originals they want, we’ve got the technology features, on-demand, authenticated apps. We’re what they want — they just can’t get to us.

And how do we get it to them and how do we not have it cannibalize our current business? How are we more distributor-friendly while we’re trying to do this, and how can we maybe even have the two of them work together and show ourselves as a more forward-thinking, more technologically-based company?

MCN:Is it harder to get the distributor’s attention, to get them to prioritize marketing your service?

Jeffrey Hirsch: I think first and foremost, gaining and keeping subscribers is the biggest priority for them. And I think figuring out how to grow revenue on top of that, obviously, is the second priority, and that’s where we come in. So if we can help in any way — whether it’s putting this app on top of the broadband-onlys to drive more upside there — then we are willing.

CA: We make money for them. We are not in there jamming them with big price increases. We just want to grow our business consistently in their lane.

MCN:Do you see more companies like Netflix or Amazon emerging?

CA: It’s hard to make shows. I know everybody thinks it’s so easy. [Laughter.] Let me tell you something. It’s only television, as I like to say, but on the other hand this isn’t so easy. So you’ve got YouTube out there; you’ve got Google. I mean there are big companies that could decide to do anything, but big companies can trip over themselves. Just because somebody does one thing well doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to do everything well. There is obviously some synergy in how a lot of companies can make money together, to the question you had before: “I did this well, you guys did this well, let’s do both things even better together.”

MCN:Do you think we are hitting a ceiling with regards to the amount of content that’s coming into the marketplace?

CA: I sure hope so. [Laughter.] I think what you’ll see is — I think you’ll see people kind of going to the sidelines. Not everybody is going to be able to do this, particularly ad-supported [networks]. Again, I like the subscription model, I like the premium, non-advertiser supported model.

The big broadcast networks, some of the big channels, right now they’re doing great, they’ve been well-funded for a while. But I think there’s risk. Less eyeballs don’t hurt us. Less subscribers hurt us. Less eyeballs hurt advertiser guys, and if they can’t charge enough money for their commercials, then they’re going to have a hard time getting enough money to make shows.

That to me is a world that I think has got a different trajectory, different challenges than where we are, which is a model that kind of is what everybody else is trying to get into. You know? Not a lot of people are trying to build ad-supported stuff right now. Everybody’s trying to build subscription, non-ad-supported stuff. So, hello, we’ve got that. Now let’s figure out how we can do more of it better.

MCN:You’ve taken a different tack than most networks in that you’re reaching out to different target audiences with your content, be it African American, urban, Hispanic. Will that continue?

CA: Yes. We’re going to expand on that. And it’s even the millennials with [Ash vs. Evil Dead], Blunt Talk, some of the other things that we’re doing. We’ve got American Gods coming up. Targeting a specific audience makes a lot of sense. It helps you focus your marketing, helps you focus your PR, helps you know what you’re doing. Through social media, through all of these opportunities, put something on that appeals to a demographic group, especially if they are avid users of social media, especially if they’re vocal.

And although we may not have the biggest audiences on television, we do absolutely, by major social media platform metrics, have some of the most engaged. That’s good, because they’re going to talk about the show and other people have a chance to find out about it and that’s the best recommendation engine you can find. Other people talking about the programs and then ultimately talking about your brand.

MCN:What about bingeing? Are you going to extend the practice now of launching some series in advance, all the episodes, much like Netflix does or is that something that you …

CA: We’ve got two shows launching the same weekend: Outlander [April 9], which is going to be one episode at a time, and The Girlfriend Experience [April 10], which is dropping them all. Different audiences, different shows.

And just because we drop all the episodes doesn’t mean that people are obligated to watch them. Look, Outlander is a big-tent show. If you want to watch a season of Outlander, for me, however long, I binge it — as a grownup, I don’t really have that much time. But when we got all the rough cuts delivered to us over the summer from [Steven] Soderbergh on Girlfriend Experience. I got them on a Friday night. I woke up Saturday morning, I had a beach house for the summer and I thought, ‘All right, I’ll watch a couple episodes.’ I downloaded them all. I’ll watch a couple episodes, I’ll go and take my bike, go to lunch, come back, I’ll watch a few more, I’ll go to dinner, I’ll watch the rest tomorrow. I started watching them, 13 half-hour episodes. Six and a half hours later, I was starving, but I was like, ‘Holy shit, what was that?’ I could not stop watching it. It was fantastic. And the research showed that young women — maybe even counterintuitively, until you see this amazing performance by [series star] Riley [Keough] — are actually drawn to this show and they’ll enjoy being able to make that choice to watch multiple episodes in a row if they want to.

MCN:We’ve talked about everything that’s coming in on Starz. Disney movies are going away in another year. How do you fill that void? You get oneStar Warsmovie [the 2015 box-office powerhouseStar Wars: The Force Awakens] and you’re out.

CA: I like to say we have the only Star Wars movie. [Laughter.] But I mean, look, if you’re looking at the launch of this thing that we’re talking about, so you’ve got Outlander and Girlfriend Experience into Power and Survivor’s Remorse, into Ash and Blunt Talk and over that the only Star Wars movie. You know, Disney is a great partner. Sure, it would have been great to have them. We love the Sony guys and the future that Rothman has there. We need good movies, we’ve got library deals with everybody. I’m telling you, if you’re looking for a movie to watch, you’ve got a better shot at finding something you want to watch in a library deal than hoping that the studio output deal that you have is getting lucky. And by the time it flows through the theaters, flows through pay per view, flows through home entertainment, flows through whatever, [electronic sell-through], not that many people still are waiting for it in the pay window. But something they haven’t seen for a few years, you go, yeah.

A&E will develop a variety/showcase series featuring rapper/producer/actor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, the network said Thursday.

Jackson, who currently produces and stars in Starz’s Power drama series, will serve as executive producer and star of 50 Cent Presents (working title), a sketch comedy, music and showcase series, A&E said.

The series will combine sketches, standup, reality experiments, music, magic, dance and celebrity guest appearances, with Jackson serving as host.

"Leaning into A&E's legacy in showcasing the arts, we're setting out to redefine the traditional variety show," Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming at A&E Network, said in a release. "50 Cent is the perfect partner to refresh this classic format. He is a true tastemaker across industries and we are excited to see his impressive showcase of talent."

Premium cable network Starz has named original programming vice president Ken Segna a senior VP; he will remain based in Los Angeles.

Segna joins fellow original programming SVPs Marta Fernandez and Karen Bailey as Starz continues to ramp up its development slate.

Projects Segna is working on include the series Power, executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and creator/showrunner Courtney Kemp Agboh (The Good Wife); “Survivor’s Remorse,” which LeBron James is executive producing; The Girlfriend Experience, a 13-part anthology series executive produced by Steven Soderbergh; The One Percent, a 10-episode drama series from Academy Award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman); Counterpart, a supernatural thriller series starring Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash); and the series American Gods, FremantleMedia North America’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed urban fantasy novel of the same name.

Segna joined Starz in 2010 as an executive assistant and was named an original programming vice president last June. Prior to Starz, he was with Creative Artists Agency.

Segna also has a background as an independent producer of music videos, commercials and the well received feature documentary Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, about the legendary drummer for The Band who hailed from Turkey Scratch, Ark., and lived in Woodstock, N.Y., as he made the 2007 Grammy-winning album Dirt Farmer, his first studio album in 25 years. Helm passed away in 2012 after a long battle with throat cancer, part of which is chronicled in the 2010 film.

“Ken is an incredibly valued member of the original programming team who has been a key contributor in expanding Starz Original series programming,” Carmi Zlotnik, Starz managing director, said.