Starz Offers Personal Digital Experiences With Portrait App and Genius Quiz For STARZ Original Series "Da Vinci's Demons" Second Season

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., March 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Starz launched today two digital experiences in anticipation of the upcoming Second Season of "Da Vinci's Demons" which premieres on STARZ on Saturday, March 22nd at 9pm ET/PT.

"Your Portrait by da Vinci" digital app allows users to have their very own portrait drawn by Leonardo da Vinci himself by simply uploading a photo or connecting to their Facebook account to select an image. Once the photo is uploaded, the da Vinci sketch book will animate through multiple pages of his work and resolve to a clean page where his latest creation will begin. As da Vinci's talented hand moves, the sketch of the user appears. Once complete, users may post the image to Facebook, share on Twitter or download. This experience, created by Starz in partnership with Arsonal (www.arsonal.com), is compatible for mobile, desktop and tablets and available at Starz.com and "Da Vinci's Demons" Facebook tab. 

The second digital experience, "Dark Side of Genius" interactive quiz, measures users' intelligence level and their propensity towards a much darker side of madness, placing users on an X/Y grid with some of the greatest minds in history including the great artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

"We wanted to allow consumers to engage with da Vinci in a way that was relevant today. The portrait allows users to see themselves as Da Vinci himself may have envisioned. The Dark Side of Genius quiz is a fun, personalized way to see where you fit within the realm of geniuses who – much like da Vinci – were also teetering on the edge of madness or even mental illness," said Erin Dwyer, Executive Director of Digital Marketing for Starz. "We aim to bring people deeper into the world that 'Da Vinci's Demons' creates by finding ways to make our show content relevant and personal to consumers."

How It Works
The user takes a psychological and intelligence assessment inspired by real exams used today.  As they go through the experience they will have access to exclusive videos of "Da Vinci's Demons" Season Two. The quiz will be a mixture of quick response questions, observations and multiple-choice answers; a combination of psychological and IQ tests.

Once users have completed their assessment, they will receive a results summary and see where they fall on an X/Y grid that identifies "Genius" as one axis and "Madness" as the other. There will be four quadrants on the grid. Depending on how the user answers, their position within those quadrants will vary. They will see how they compare to other famous geniuses throughout history and they can share their results.

The Dark Side of Genius is a browser-based experience with dynamic video-based backgrounds. The experience will be available on Starz.com and the Da Vinci's Demons' Facebook page. It will be available on mobile, tablet and desktop.  

"Dark Side of Genius" was created by Starz in partnership with And Company. (www.andcompany.com).

About "Da Vinci's Demons"
Brilliant and passionate, the 25-year- old Leonardo da Vinci is an artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist. As a free thinker, with intellect and talents that are almost superhuman, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time.

Starring Tom Riley ("Monroe," I Want Candy), as the title character, season two of "Da Vinci's Demons," finds Florence thrown into chaos in the wake of the Pazzi conspiracy.  Lorenzo is gravely ill and Leonardo da Vinci must push the limits of his mind and body to defend the city against the forces of Rome. While the Medicis go to unthinkable lengths to deal with new threats, da Vinci continues on his quest to find the fabled Book of Leaves and uncover the secret history of his mother.  He'll come to realize that he has lethal competition in his quest -- new enemies who may be even worse than the forces of Pope Sixtus.  His search will take him to faraway lands and force him to reevaluate everything he knew about the world and his own history.

In addition to his high profile film credits, Goyer served as script consultant and story developer for "Call of Duty: Black Ops," and "Black Ops II," respectively, the most successful video game franchise of all time.

The ten-episode drama is produced by Adjacent Productions, with Jane Tranter, head of Adjacent Productions, serving as Executive Producer. Outside of the United States and English-speaking Canada, "Da Vinci's Demons" is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide, in partnership with FOX International Channels (FIC) who broadcasts the series to audiences in 125 countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa following Starz's exclusive premiere in the U.S.

New episodes of "Da Vinci's Demons" air on Saturdays at 9PM ET/PT exclusively on STARZ.

For additional high-resolution images and other press materials please visit the Starz Media Room at http://starz.mediaroom.com.

About Starz
Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) is a leading integrated global media and entertainment company with operating units that provide premium subscription video programming on domestic U.S. pay television channels (Starz Networks), global content distribution (Starz Distribution) and animated television and movie production (Starz Animation), www.starz.com.
 
Starz Networks is a leading provider of premium subscription video programming through the flagship STARZ® and ENCORE® pay TV networks which showcase premium original programming and movies to U.S. multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, and telecommunications companies.  As of December 31, 2013, STARZ and ENCORE serve a combined 57.1 million subscribers, including 22.2 million at STARZ, and 34.9 million at ENCORE, making them the largest pair of premium flagship channels in the U.S.  STARZ® and ENCORE®, along with Starz Networks' third network MOVIEPLEX®, air more than 1,000 movies monthly across 17 linear networks, complemented by On Demand and authenticated online offerings through STARZ PLAY, ENCORE PLAY, and MOVIEPLEX PLAY.  Starz Distribution develops, produces and acquires entertainment content, distributing it to consumers globally on DVD, digital formats and traditional television.  Starz Distribution's home video, digital media and worldwide distribution business units distribute original programming content produced by Starz, as well as entertainment content for itself and third parties.  Starz Animation produces animated TV and movie content for studios, networks, distributors and audiences worldwide.

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