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LOS ANGELES - Are you afraid of sharks? This Friday, Tubi will debut "Swim" — a new original summer movie that follows a family trapped in their storm-flooded vacation rental who must try to escape a hungry shark that’s made its way into the house.
The movie stars actor Joey Lawrence, known for several hit TV series including "Blossom," "Brotherly Love" and "Melissa and Joey."
"It’s an original Tubi, which is kind of neat," Lawrence, 45, told FOX Television Stations. "This is escapism, sort of in a good way."
"Swim" is part of Tubi’s inaugural Shark Month: Bitefest, home to the biggest streaming library of free shark movies, including all four installments of the iconic "Jaws" franchise, available to stream for free.
The actor said he hopes people forget about the bad news happening in real life and find a "fun" respite in the film.
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"I want people to... forget all about the real-life headlines and all the real-life drama that is falling upon us hourly, minute-by-minute, and just sit back for a couple hours," Lawrence continued. "This will be escapism hopefully for a lot of people, a thrill ride for a lot of people. Have some popcorn, sit down with the family and friends and just watch a good old-fashioned shark try to catch some people in the water. Hopefully, it will just be fun, that’s what this movie is intended to be: fun."
Lawrence said "it feels great" to be working with Tubi and to be at the forefront of its new content.
"They’re at the ground floor of going from a service that is unlike anything out there by offering everything for free in the original content game," Lawrence said. "Now they’re getting into exclusives because they’re making this property themselves that’s only going to be on Tubi."
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"To continue this relationship and grow this with them is exciting to me as they continue their foray into original content game which is where they are headed," he continued.
"Swim" premieres Friday, Aug. 13 on Tubi.
About Tubi: Tubi is available on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Hisense TVs, Comcast X1, Cox Contour, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the web at http://www.tubi.tv/
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With total view time surpassing 200 million hours of content streamed each month since April, Tubi has over 30,000 movies and television shows from over 250 content partners, including every major studio. The service gives fans of films and television programs an easy way to discover new content that is available completely free.
Tubi is owned by the FOX Corporation. This station is owned by FOX Corporation.
About the writer: Stephanie Weaver is a Los Angeles-based journalist. She is a host of the national streaming show, LiveNOW from FOX, and is a digital content creator for FOX TV Stations. Find her on Facebook and Instagram at @StephWeaverTV.