Sky unveils biggest ever slate of original content
January 25, 2021
By Nik Roseveare
Sky and NOW TV will air over 125 new Sky Originals throughout 2021. Sky will bring its subscribers 30 new Sky Original films and 30 new Sky Original documentaries, on top of a number of drama, comedy, entertainment and arts series.
Altogether, Sky says there will be 50 per cent more original TV and film than last year.
Sky Cinema will become the home of Sky Original film with at least two new original films every month and this is set to rise to one a week from next year.
Movie titles will include A Boy Called Christmas, the origin story of Father Christmas, re-imagined in Gil Keenan’s 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.
Meanwhile, be Sky Original documentaries include an exploration of how Liverpool became the epicentre of a drugs boom that was to change Britain forever in Liverpool Narcos, a revealing look at newly discovered footage from the Chernobyl disaster in Chernobyl 86, a glimpse back at Britain’s 40-year struggle with HIV/AIDS in Positive and a forensic examination of the case of Jeremy Bamber and the White House Farm Murders in The Bambers: Murder at the Farm, executive produced by Louis Theroux and Aaron Fellows.
In the high-end drama category, there are four new series on their way from TV writers Paul Abbott (Shameless, No Offence) with Wolfe David Farr (The Night Manager) with The Midwich Cuckoos and Joe Barton (Giri/Haji, The Batman) with Extinctionand Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, 24 Hour Party People) with This Sceptred Isle. Original entertainment titles include Safe Space (Greg Davies) and Russell Howard’s Back To The Future Stand Up Show (working title).
Zai Bennett, Managing Director, Content, Sky UK & Ireland, commented: “This year on Sky and NOW TV we’ve got an epic variety of entertainment for everyone, adding a brand-new slate of Sky Original films and Sky Original documentaries to our line-up of award-winning drama, comedy, entertainment and arts series. If you love film, Sky Cinema is the place for you with the latest box office movies alongside our new and exclusive 30 Sky Original films, including A Boy Called Christmas and Save The Cinema and A list stars from Judi Dench and Eddie Izzard through to Morgan Freeman and Robert De Niro. And if real life stories are your thing, we’ve got compelling documentaries on everything from the drugs trade in 1980s Liverpool to the White House Farm Murders, alongside unmissable drama from world class writers including Paul Abbott, David Farr and Joe Barton and Michael Winterbottom.”
This schedule for 2021 and beyond is part of Sky’s commitment to more than double its investment in original content by 2024. And work is underway on Sky Studios Elstree, its new state-of-the-art TV and film studio in North London, which is set to be the most sustainable in the world when it opens in 2022.
This new line up of Sky Original films, joins the already announced Twist with two-time Academy Award winner Sir Michael Caine, Dragon Rider, voiced by Felicity Jones and Patrick Stewart and To Olivia starring Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes.
All of these exclusive shows and films sit alongside aggregated content on Sky’s Sky Q platform, including shows and films from Amazon and Netflix, as well as apps such as Disney+, BBC iPlayer and Discovery+.