CONTENT LONDON: A sci-fi series described as “Band of Brothers meets Halo” remains in development with Starz, according to its MD, who has talked up the US cablenet’s original programming plans for 2015/16.

Carmi Zlotnik told delegates during his keynote speech at the International Drama Summit strand at C21’s Content London that the cablenet is fully committed to creating more original series.

One of these could be Incursion, a war story that follows a squad of Earth soldiers as they wage war against hostile aliens, which has been on Starz’s slate since at least  2012 ^[1].

Zlotnik said that the project, which is being written by Spartacus creator Steven S DeKnight, is “on the back burner” but “still in development.”

Starz has produced or coproduced almost 100 episodes of exclusive US drama since the beginning of 2013, launching series such as Power, Boss, Outlander and, most recently, The Missing.

It will air “more and more” original content in the years ahead, Zlotnik said, in order to “super-serve the under-served,” who the exec identified as being “women, African Americans, Latinos and young adults.”

The push will be funded by what Zlotnik called the “additional resources” made available to Starz as a result of its output deal with Disney ending in 2017, when the rights to the Mouse House’s feature film library will transfer to streaming service Netflix.

More recent commissions by Starz include a 10×30′ spin-off ^[2] from the classic horror movie Evil Dead; a third season ^[3] of pirate drama Black Sails; and a 13-part anthology series ^[4] inspired by a feature film from director Steven Soderbergh.

Meanwhile, Starz will join the likes of HBO ^[5] in launching an on-demand, over-the-top offering for viewers in the US and internationally.

CEO Chris Albrecht recently said that the cablenet would be committing US$20m to set up Starz Play International ^[6].