Wowow picks Penny Dreadful, Extant

Japanese premium pay TV channel Wowow has picked up a pair of high-profile US dramas for its 2015 schedules.

Extant, starring Halle Berry and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, will air on Wowow next year and be available on the broadcaster’s catch up services.

Penny Dreadful, a psychological thriller from Showtime and Sky Atlantic in the UK, executive produced by Sam Mendes, has also been picked up for broadcast and subscription VoD services.

The deals were done with CBS Studios International, which distributes both shows and has previously sold CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Elementary and Nurse Jackie to Wowow.

Extant, about an astronaut who returns from a year alone in space to find she is pregnant, was recently renewed for a second season by CBS in the US.

Penny Dreadful brings some of literature’s best known characters, including Dr Frankenstein and Dorian Gray, to life in Victorian London.