Encore Westerns and Starz In Black Celebrate 15th Anniversary of Mario Van Peebles' Landmark Western Posse With Theatrical Film and Original Special

Encore Westerns and Starz In Black Celebrate 15th Anniversary of Mario Van Peebles' Landmark Western Posse With Theatrical Film and Original Special

Original Companion Piece Posse Rides Again features Mario & Melvin Van Peebles, Rapper Big Daddy Kane, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Actor/Director Charles Lane & Actor/Director Warrington Hudlin

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Director Mario Van Peebles shot wide holes through the myths of the old wild, Wild West with Posse, his controversial 1993 hip-hop Western. To celebrate the 15th anniversary of this landmark film, Posse and its companion piece Posse Rides Again will be showcased on June 6th at 6:00 p.m. on Encore Westerns and June 19th (Juneteenth) at 6:00 p.m. on Starz In Black.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080522/LATH063LOGO-a)

Posse Rides Again, a 21-minute original special produced by Encore Westerns features interviews with Mario and Melvin Van Peebles, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, rapper Big Daddy Kane, actor/director Charles Lane and Warrington Hudlin. Each offers insight into the significance of this groundbreaking film, which has been called the untold story of the West.

In Posse, a story of brutal revenge, Jesse Lee (Mario Van Peebles) and his posse are comprised of a small group of survivors who escape from an ambush set by a sadistic Colonel (Billy Zane). With the exception of Stephen Baldwin's "Little J," all members of Lee's posse are black ("Tiny" Lister, Lane, rappers Tone Loc and Big Daddy Kane). In reality, as opposed to the Hollywood Western, "One out of every three cowboys was black," says Mario Van Peebles. "I wanted to see if we can do the Western like it's never been done before." Says father Melvin, "When Mario called me and told me he was going to do a Western with a largely African American cast, I was interested because cowboy movies were usually all white, which was not the case at all. The word cowboy came from the fact that in antebellum times, it was the blacks who had to deal with the cows and they were called 'boys.'"

Posse's other cast members included an array of interesting choices: cult actress Pam Grier, comedian Nipsey Russell, Blair Underwood, "South Park's" Isaac Hayes and, in his last speaking role, Western icon Woody Strode.

"I'm a true product of America," says Mario. "My mom is white, my dad is black and I've got some Native American in me. So, all racial groups that you see in Posse are in my veins."

Adds the director, "Posse is a popcorn movie, not a film. It's a big, trash talkin', loud, in-your-face, butt kickin', face slappin' Western."

Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(R) and Encore(R) brands with approximately 16.8 million and 31.4 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Vongo(R). Starz Entertainment (http://www.starz.com/) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Entertainment Group, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

Contacts: Steve Belgard Robin Mesger
Starz Entertainment The Lippin Group
(720) 852-5843 (323) 965-1990
steve.belgard@starz.comrmesger@lippingroup.com

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http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080522/LATH063LOGO-a
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Starz Entertainment

CONTACT: Steve Belgard of Starz Entertainment, +1-720-852-5843,
steve.belgard@starz.com; or Robin Mesger of The Lippin Group, +1-323-965-1990,
rmesger@lippingroup.com, for Starz Entertainment

Web site:

http://www.starz.com/

NOTE TO EDITOR: Download high-resolution versions of related images at http://starz.mediaroom.com.

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