SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/250660
Neil deGrasse Tyson Pilots Return Voyage to Carl Sagan's COSMOS by Logan Hill There was nothing like COSMOS, and there never has been since, says Ann Druyan, who co-wrote all 13 episodes of the landmark television series with her late husband, Carl Sagan, and co-writer Steven Soter. "There was a confluence of ideas and information and feelings in the same place. It was shamanistic: not interviewing scientists, but one person with scientific cred telling these stories like we were all sitting around a campfire." In 1980, half a billion people listened to Sagan tell stories about those "billions of trillions of stars." The show was lavishly cinematic, scientifically grounded, and more than a little trippy: America's biggest science star since Einstein toured the galaxy in a sleek sci-fi spaceship, wearing his trademark blazer and turtleneck, abetted by fresh footage from Voyager probes and groundbreaking green-screen effects. He explained the fundamentals of evolution and astronomy while describing the origins and scale of the universe, all while giving his audience an emotional grounding in the vastness of space: a visceral, humbling sense of what it means to live on what he would later call "the pale blue dot," Earth. The show's originality, scale and sheer audacity made a proper reboot a difficult proposition in an era more accustomed to straightforward high-definition footage, talking heads and inexpensive voiceovers. "I spent my last seven years on a quest, schlepping from pillar to post trying to make it happen," says Druyan. "Nobody wanted to do it on the scale that I wanted to do it, or to give me the freedom that I needed." Druyan succeeded in bringing the show back to the screen on her own terms, largely thanks to the help of the partner she tapped to host the show, the astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History educator and Twitter celebrity Neil deGrasse Tyson. "We went out peddling the concept to the normal cast of characters: the Discovery Channel, Science Channel, PBS, National Geographic," says Tyson, who has long followed in Sagan's footsteps. "There was no shortage of offers, but we had the feeling that they wanted to turn COSMOS into one of their own style of documentaries. And COSMOS has its own way of narrative storytelling." Sagan was able to make elegant, emotional sense of seemingly inexplicable mysteries in a way that preserved your sense of wonder, even as it demystified your suspicions. No doubt, the turtlenecked savant would have been delighted by the improbable, cosmic coincidences that brought the reboot of his show to Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network, thanks to the benevolence of low-brow fart-joke king Seth MacFarlane. "One could have never scripted it," says Tyson, laughing. Six months after a fortuitous meeting with The Family Guy creator at a session of the National Academy of Science's Science and Entertainment Exchange, the two had lunch. "Seth said: I've just signed this big contract with Fox. What can I do to help the cause of science in the world?" 16 SXSWORLD / FEBRUARY 2014 After batting around ideas, Tyson gently mentioned that he might help fund a pilot of COSMOS. "Seth lights up," says Tyson. "He says: 'I've got a better idea. Why don't I bring this to Fox?' " There's not much that baffles the brilliant astrophysicist, but MacFarlane's suggestion did the trick. "For the first three seconds these words are coming out of his mouth, I think 'this is the stupidest idea I've ever heard in my life: COSMOS is never going to be on Fox!' " says Tyson, who thought first of Fox News' conservative, creationist-friendly, anti-environmental slant. The next three seconds, Tyson says, he thought of Fox's Avatar, Fox Searchlight's Slumdog Millionaire, and The Simpsons' liberal satire on Fox TV. "The next three seconds," he says, laughing, "I'm thinking: 'Wait, if COSMOS appears on Fox, then it will have the maximal possible impact conceivable. This is the greatest idea I've ever heard!' " MacFarlane offered to fund half of the pilot out of his own pocket. Fox Entertainment chairman Peter Rice one-upped him, guaranteeing a full 13-episode order with the ambitious budget they'd long been chasing. Suddenly, Druyan and Tyson didn't just have a show; they had the full support of Fox. Bill Pope, the cinematographer of the Matrix movies, signed up to shoot the series. Ryan Church, who designed the new Starship Enterprise for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek and worked as a concept lead for both Avatar and Star Wars, designed Tyson's sleek new "Spaceship of the Imagination." MacFarlane used his connections to bring in top-notch animators to tell the history, rather than using what Druyan jokingly describes as the old show's "mutton-chopped re-enactors." The original series was politically bold: Rather than offering evolution or the Big Bang as theories on par with creationism, it argued forcefully for their scientific validity. The new series picks up right where it left off, emboldened by three fresh decades of scientific consensus. Tyson says the show will profile "science martyrs" who were persecuted, in order to remind viewers that there's "no guarantee that the culture in which you live will embrace scientific innovation and discovery, because our culture should be actively fostering it." "Since Carl's death, we entered a period of intense hostility toward science and a kind of retreat into magical thinking—a president who pronounced nuclear 'nucular,' " says Druyan. "But there's a whole constellation of conclusions the scientific community has reached: on global warming, on evolution. And I think Carl would have been flabbergasted to see that we have moved backwards as far as we have." "Now," she says, "the pendulum seems to be swinging back." n COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey will be screened at SXSW Film in a Special Event featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson and executive producers Ann Druyan, Mitchell Cannold and Brannon Braga on Friday, March 7, and Tyson will also be a keynote speaker at SXSW Interactive on Saturday, March 8 at 2pm. See sxsw. com for more information on both events.