CINEMAX CONFIRMS LINEUP OF ORIGINAL SERIES FOR 2015, INCLUDING RETURNING SHOWS "BANSHEE," "STRIKE BACK" AND "THE KNICK"

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2015 - CINEMAX has confirmed its lineup of original series for 2015, spotlighting a colorful array of characters from different eras in locales around the world. Shows include the returning series BANSHEE, STRIKE BACK and THE KNICK.

BANSHEE returns for its ten-episode third season tomorrow, Jan. 9. Antony Starr stars in the show as Lucas Hood, an ex-con and master thief who assumes the identity of the sheriff of Banshee, Pa., where he continues his criminal pursuits while enforcing his own code of justice. Other returning cast members include Ivana Milicevic as Carrie Hopewell, a notorious jewel thief who lives in Banshee under an assumed identity with her family, who has recently learned of her criminal past; Ulrich Thomsen as Kai Proctor, an intimidating, wealthy businessman who believes he is above the law; Frankie Faison as Sugar Bates, a powerful and wise former boxer and ex-con who is now the owner of the local watering hole; and Hoon Lee as Job, a dangerous transvestite computer hacker who assists Lucas and Carrie in their criminal enterprises. The Emmy(R)-winning show is executive produced by Jonathan Tropper, Peter Macdissi, Alan Ball and Greg Yaitanes.

STRIKE BACK returns for its fourth and final season this summer. In the new episodes, Damien Scott (Sullivan Stapleton) and Michael Stonebridge (Philip Winchester), along with the rest of Section 20, are enlisted to crack a missing-persons case in Bangkok. This elite undercover unit of British intelligence quickly realizes that what seems on the surface to be a simple kidnapping is actually the first step in a massive terrorist plot with global implications. Scott, Stonebridge and the team crisscross Asia and Europe, battling Japanese Yakuza, Russian Mafia, cyberterrorists, elite mercenaries and other deadly forces. Series regulars Robson Green, Michelle Lukes and Milauna Jackson also return for the season; new cast members include Michelle Yeoh, Will Yun Lee, Dustin Clare, Max Beesley and Michael McElhatton. A CINEMAX Presentation in association with British Sky Broadcasting Limited; a Left Bank Pictures Production; executive producers, Andy Harries for Left Bank and Cameron Roach for Sky; series producers, Michael Casey and Sharon Hughff; co-executive producer, Michael J. Bassett.

THE KNICK returns for its ten-episode second season this fall. Helmed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Golden Globe nominee Clive Owen as the brilliant and emotionally tortured surgeon Dr. John W. Thackery, the show is set in New York City in 1900 and centers on Knickerbocker Hospital and its groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff, who push the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics. André Holland, Eve Hewson, Juliet Rylance, Jeremy Bobb, Michael Angarano, Chris Sullivan, Cara Seymour, Eric Johnson, David Fierro, Maya Kazan, Grainger Hines, Leon Addison Brown, Tom Lipinski, Zaraah Abrahams, Michael Nathanson, Rachel Korine, Charles Aitken and LaTonya Borsay round out the ensemble cast of the critically acclaimed series. The creators and writing team of Jack Amiel & Michael Begler also serve as executive producers, along with Gregory Jacobs, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Sugar and Clive Owen. Steven Katz co-executive produces; Michael Polaire produces.