‘Movie Club with John Ridley’ Offers AMC Viewers Reviews and Commentary on New Movies and DVD Releases

Filmmaker Ridley and Guests Joust Over Merits of New Releases
and Offer Insights Into the World of Film

Weekly Original Series Premieres Friday, December 17

NEW YORK, NY, December 6, 2004 – AMC today announced that it will launch “Movie Club with John Ridley,” a weekly movie review series that will offer a guide to upcoming theatrical and DVD releases from the unique perspective of filmmaker/screenwriter John Ridley and his movie reviewer guests. The original series, will premiere Friday December 17 at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

“Movie Club With John Ridley” will feature the host and a revolving panel of four movie reviewers squaring off in lively half-hour discussions on new theatrical releases. The reviews will feature enough critical venom, virtue and clips to entertain all movie lovers. Each reviewer will critique one movie and then grade it on a scale of one to four stars, the others will then contribute their own scores and critical insights.

Joining John Ridley on “The Movie Club” are his panel of witty and wily critics. The revolving group includes: Nathan Rabin, Head Entertainment Writer for ‘The Onion’; Anderson Jones, CNN Headline News Entertainment Reporter; Dr. Josh Kun, a Los Angeles based writer and critic who is a professor of Pop Culture at UC Riverside and an arts columnist for the San Francisco Bay Guardian; and Zorianna Kit, the entertainment reporter for KTLA Channel 5’s nightly news broadcast, News @ 10 in Los Angeles, and formerly the senior staff film reporter at The Hollywood Reporter and “The Insider” columnist for People Magazine.

“Movie Club with John Ridley” will also present special themed episodes tying into the holiday season, Golden Globes, Academy Awards and other movie industry events. The show also enables viewers to interact with AMC via the channel’s website (AMCTV.com). During “Movie Club with John Ridley,” the website will present additional, exclusive footage from the show as well as viewer polling and input.

John Ridley and his crew bring passionate and intelligent discussion to this format, said Rob Sorcher, AMC’s Senior Vice President, Programming and Production. This series will provide AMC viewers with a range of perspective on upcoming movies. John Ridley is a multi-faceted talent in film, television and publishing, and his insights and sharp opinions will make ‘Movie Club with John Ridley’ appointment viewing for all movie lovers.”

Ridley added: “This series will not present film criticism from the usual arch-intellectual, high-horse viewpoint. Our commentary will come from the perspective of filmmakers and industry insiders, and our commitment is to make movie reviews fun again.”

Ridley is the author of six highly regarded novels and is a former producer on NBC’s “Third Watch.” He wrote and produced the film “Undercover Brother,” conceived the story for “Three Kings” and wrote/directed “Cold Around the Heart.” Ridley’s novel, “Stray Dogs,” was made into the film “U-Turn” by Oliver Stone. Ridley also is a regular commentator for National Public Radio.

“Movie Club with John Ridley” was created by John Davies and is executive produced by Davies and Sandy Wernick.

About AMC
AMC, a division of Rainbow Media’s Entertainment Services, which also includes WE: Women’s Entertainment and IFC Companies, is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 86,000,000 homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and a critically-acclaimed slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. Over the past three years AMC has garnered many of the industry’s highest honors, including eight Emmy awards. AMC is “TV for movie people.”