AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

HBO hails ‘Taxi’

Network picks up TV rights to documentary

HBO has picked up pay TV rights to the controversial Oscar-nommed doc “Taxi to the Dark Side,” after Discovery Channel opted to hold off from running it.

The pay cabler negotiated with Discovery Communications to assume the first TV run of the doc, which will bow on HBO in September. As part of the deal, Discovery maintained rights to run “Taxi to the Dark Side” on its Investigation Discovery channel; those basic cable airings won’t begin until 2009.

“Taxi to the Dark Side,” directed, written and produced by Alex Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) focuses on the murder of a taxi driver at the U.S.’ Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The homicide is used as a backdrop to investigate American use of detention and its condoning of torture in interrogations.

After it was apparent Discovery wouldn’t run “Taxi” this year, HBO Documentary Films prexy Shiela Nevins said Gibney contacted her team directly to gauge their interest.

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