M-Net and MultiChoice have announced the latest in a continuing line of themed pop-up channels, which to date has included offerings such as the Fast & Furious, Star Wars, Harry Potter, James Bond and more - this time themed around martial arts movies.
The new M-Net Movies Blackbelt pop-up channel will debut across Africa on Thursday 15 June, running for 25 days on Channel 109 and is available to Premium, Extra and Compact customers.
The channel will showcase a variety of action films in the martial arts movie genre and its numerous sub-genres, with content curated to feature martial arts classics spanning over 40 years from around the globe.
M-Net Movies Blackbelt will - amongst others - celebrate the legacies of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Jet Li, among other greats of the genre. This means there will be epic revenge tales, Shaolin monks, flying fists, ninja stars, dubbed classics, Van Damme splits and kicks and more.
However, in a move screaming bizarre overkill, the main focus of the channel will be Chuck Norris. We get that there are a million Chuck Norris jokes, which M-Net has roundly embraced for years in various guises, but the meme is getting a little old now. And if you aren't yet sick of Chucky-themed evenings, you will be after 25 straight days of Walker, Texas Ranger re-runs which start at 09h00 every single weekday and continue from around midnight - but with different seasons which are not even concurrent.
You will be (mostly) spared Chuck on the weekends however, which are built around themes. On the weekend of 17 and 18 June you will see the "Best of the Best" in the genre, while Jackie Chan will take over on the weekend of 24 and 25 June and Jean-Claude Van Damme the following weekend.
And what about the final weekend's theme? You got it - Norris. Because old series re-runs every day aren't enough, apparently. The scheduler should probably get a life. Unlike Chuck, who only ever
takes a life.
M-Net Movies Blackbelt debuts on Thursday 15 June and runs until just after midnight on Sunday 9 July.