Steven Spielberg To Discover Future Earth

Discovery Channel announced yesterday that not only are they working with Pixar on an upcoming special, but they're also working with Steven Spielberg on a new mini-series which will imagine out sci-non-fi future.

Future Earth aims to be an epic mini-series examining what life on Earth will be like in 25, 50 and 100 years. The mini-series will draw from a vast number of sources, including the leading futurists, scholars and great minds of today, to dramatize and explore how various facets of our daily lives – health and medicine, technology, the environment, the military, the economy and media – will evolve over the next century.

Basically, the series will attempt to recreate what Discovery did with Planet Earth and Life, but instead examining the world of the future. Remember, in 2002's Minority Report Spielberg featured a computer that used multi-touch technologies a half decade before the Microsoft surface, iPhone/iPad. I can't wait to see what the future might look like, especially as seen through the direction of Spielberg. Read the full press release after the jump.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT DEAL WITH STEVEN SPIELBERG, DREAMWORKS TELEVISION AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Discovery Channel announced today that it is working to develop a new mini-series project with Academy(R) Award-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Television and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA) entitled FUTURE EARTH (wt). DreamWorks Television and DreamWorks Animation will co-develop this future project, of which Spielberg will personally oversee development.

"We pride ourselves on bringing the best storytellers in the business to Discovery," said Clark Bunting, president and general manager, Discovery Channel and president, Science Channel. "Steven Spielberg, his team at DreamWorks Television and DreamWorks Animation are at the top of that list. We are excited and look forward to collaborating with them on an exciting array of new nonfiction programs."

FUTURE EARTH aims to be an epic mini-series examining what life on Earth will be like in 25, 50 and 100 years. The mini-series will draw from a vast number of sources, including the leading futurists, scholars and great minds of today, to dramatize and explore how various facets of our daily lives – health and medicine, technology, the environment, the military, the economy and media – will evolve over the next century.

"I am excited to be back in business with DreamWorks Animation and all the active imaginations and creative artists at the best animation company in the world today. Joining together with Discovery, we have an opportunity to bring exciting new experiences to take television audiences into the imagined future of planet Earth, said Steven Spielberg.

"We are thrilled to join forces with Discovery on such a uniquely positioned new mini-series and look forward to reuniting with Steven and his team to bring FUTURE EARTH to life for viewers in creative and innovative ways," added Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation.

"We are all enormous fans of what Discovery did with PLANET EARTH and LIFE, and how they were able to expose us to the world around us in a way we had never seen it before. With FUTURE EARTH, we endeavor to do the same with the world of the future," said Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, Co-Heads of DreamWorks Television and Executive Producers on the project.

via: thefutoncritic