ABC FAMILY CONTINUES TO BUILD SLATE OF ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING WITH ORIGINAL EVENT, "SAMURAI GIRL" AND THE RETURN OF HIT SERIES "GREEK"
(Burbank, CA, February 14, 2008) � Continuing its commitment to original quality programming for the Millennial audience, ABC Family has picked up season two of the network's hit series "Greek," and ordered "Samurai Girl" as a special six hour programming event from ABC Studios it was announced today by ABC Family President, Paul Lee. Production on both projects is set to begin this spring.
"We're very proud of 'Greek' and are thrilled to be bringing it back," said Mr. Lee. "And 'Samurai Girl' is just perfect for us, we believe Jamie Chung has real break-out potential."
Based on a series of popular young adult novels, "Samurai Girl" tells the story of a 19-year old Japanese girl named Heaven, who discovers that the wealthy businessman who adopted her as an infant is really the head of the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and may have had her beloved brother brutally murdered. She breaks from her family and begins training to become a samurai, and with the help of a group of new American friends, sets out to take down her father's evil empire.
"Samurai Girl" is slated to begin production in Vancouver this spring and air over the course of one weekend in August 2008. ABC Family has had considerable success with weekend-long programming events, such as the original, "Fallen," and with acquired features, including the 'Harry Potter' and "Bring it On" franchises.
"Samurai Girl" stars: Jamie Chung (Heaven), Brendan Fehr (Jake Stanton), Saige Thompson (Cheryl), Kyle Labine (Otto), Anthony Brandon Wong (Kogo), Steven Brand (Severin) and Kenneth Choi (Sato). Jamie Chung was in "Real World: San Diego" and is starring in the upcoming feature, "Dragonball."
"Samurai Girl" was brought to ABC Family through Alloy Entertainment. Alloy's Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy will serve as executive producers on the series. Frank Spotnitz served as an executive producer on the pilot. The teleplay was written by co-EP, Luke McMullen.
ABC Family has also ordered season two of its hit series, "Greek." Production is set to begin in early April and the twelve episodes will air as part of the 2008-09 season. All new episodes, part of season one, are set to premiere March 24, 2008. With the initial run of ten episodes in the summer of 2007, "Greek" established itself as the network's most-watched original series on record in adults 18 � 24, while its final on September 10, 2007 ranked as ABC Family's top-rated original series telecast ever in the targeted young adult demo.
"Greek's" companion website, VirtualRush.com was one of the first social networking sites within the Walt Disney Company and was tremendously active even when the show was not on the air. "Greek" is also on its way to becoming an international success with a UK run slated for the near future.
Created by Patrick Sean Smith, GREEK is executive produced by Piller/Segan in association with ABC Family. The cast includes Jacob Zachar as Rusty, Spencer Grammer as Casey, Scott Michael Foster as Cappie, Jake McDorman as Evan, Clark Duke as Dale, Dilshad Vadsaria as Rebecca, Paul James as Calvin, Amber Stevens as Ashleigh and Tiffany Dupont as Frannie.
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