Starz has a star in 'Spartacus'

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There's no confusing Starz's "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" with Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

In the pay TV channel's adaptation of the tale of the rebel Roman slave, the battle cries from the Classical Age have, well, a distinctly 21st-century ring. The sexual intrigue seems lifted right out of a VH1 dating show. (When a socialite decides to buy one of the gladiators-in-training, the men are ordered to drop their loincloths so she can make an informed choice.) Then there's the graphic, slow-motion violence (including a severed, flying head that would impress Quentin Tarantino).

With 1.1 million viewers, "Spartacus" is a home run for the cable channel, which is available in a modest 17 million homes. Long overshadowed by rivals HBO and Showtime, Starz has seen the sword-and-sandal melodrama become its first original series hit.

The campy, B-movie style of "Spartacus" is not in line with the reputation of chief executive Chris Albrecht, the former HBO head who shepherded the highbrow dramas "The Sopranos" and "The Wire," but he's happy to take the show's lead and run with it.

"It's a different take on a story that's been pretty familiar," Albrecht said.

The show's growing ratings "have made me think about a lot of stuff," he added. "I thought, 'Wow, we could do a whole network like this and it would be different.' It's not a bad place to start in terms of restarting the brand."

In the job only two months -- "Spartacus" was developed under the previous management -- Albrecht has been charged by Starz's owner, Liberty Media, with turning the No. 3 pay cable network into more than just a channel that recycles Hollywood movies.

Fonte: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/tv/89462362.html?page=1&c=y

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