Katana Forging

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El Rey picks up “Man at Arms,” “Rite of Passage”
By Selina Chignall January 16, 2017

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Texas-based lifestyle net, El Rey Network, has picked up two original unscripted series, Man At Arms and Rite of Passage.

The digital series Man At Arms will be brought to television in a copro with Defy Media, the digital studio behind the series. El Rey has ordered eight, one-hour episodes of the series where expert craftsmen reproduce famed weapons and armor from scratch. Using technology from the time they were originally produced, along with state-of-art technology, the craftsmen create “historical, modern and mythological works of martial art,” a statement from the network said. The weaponry is then tested by experts for functionality and strength.

Man at Arms will be produced by Defy, led by heads of Television/OTT production and development Jared Hoffman and Chris Pollack, chief content officer Barry Blumberg and El Rey Network. Hoffman and Pollack will also serve as series’ executive producers and showrunners.

David Sherman at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment negotiated the deal.

El Rey has also picked up the 12-part docuseries Rite of Passage. Award-winning producer, reporter and cameraman Tim Noonan (pictured) scours the earth, immersing himself in local cultures where he participates in the rituals that define the transition to manhood. These rituals land Noonan in environments like the anaconda-infested plains of Venezuela, and in Cameroon, West Africa, where he crawls headfirst into the home of a giant rock python to wrestle it from its lair.

Seven Productions, a division of The Seven Network in Australia, produced Rite of Passage.

Both Man at Arms and Right of Passage will air in the first half of 2017 on the El Rey Network.

For more on EL REY, see our El Rey Network and Shaw Brothers thread.