Brett Morgan, Jane Goodall Gabriel Olsen/FilmMagic; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Brett Morgen will write and direct the film about the world famous primatologist.
National Geographic Channel is developing a trio of feature documentaries, hiring top doc filmmakers to helm the stories centered on Jane Goodall, the global water crisis and the L.A. Riots.
Brett Morgen, the documentary filmmaker behind Cobain: Montage of Heck, will write, direct and produce the untitled feature biopic about world famous primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall. He’ll use recently re-discovered archived film from Dr. Goodall’s early research at Gombe National Park in Tanzania during the 1960s.
“Brett Morgen has an uncanny ability to completely immerse viewers into his subject matter with his signature style,” said Tim Pastore, president of original programming & production, National Geographic Channel. “I can’t think of anyone better suited to transform this classic National Geographic footage of Dr. Goodall into a modern-day masterpiece that will celebrate her life and contributions to wildlife conservation.”
The currently untitled documentary will have a theatrical release followed by a global television premiere on the National Geographic Channel.
The untitled project on Jane Goodall is being produced for National Geographic Channel by National Geographic Studios, in association with Public Road Productions. For National Geographic Studios, Jeff Hasler and Jared Lipworth are executive producers. For Public Road Productions, Brett Morgen is producer, director and writer. For NGC, president of original programming and production is Tim Pastore.
Marina Zenovich, who directed both Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out, will direct and executive produce Parched, about the global water crisis. Alex Gibney, the prolific documentary filmmaker behind films like Going Clear and Taxi to the Dark Side, will produce through his Jigsaw Productions.
Simon Chinn, who produced the Oscar-winning doc Searching for Sugar Man, and his cousin Emmy award winning Jonathan Chinn have signed on to executive produce a doc looking at the 992 LA Riots, which is working under the title LA 92.
The projects are part of an evolving strategy at Nat Geo, which is a major growth priority for new 21st Century Fox CEOs James and Lachlan Murdoch. Nat Geo global networks CEO Courteney Monroe first outlined her plans in a recent interview with THR, revealing how her focus now will be on bigger budgets, higher production quality and name talent behind the camera. Other recent examples include scripted effort Saints & Strangers as well as upcoming series Last Men Out from Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson and In Harm's Way from Mark Gordon. Further illustrating the strategy is Darren Aronofsky’s One Strange Rock, which will film in space.
The news of the three projects comes ahead of Nat Geo's first big presence at Sundance Film Festival on Saturday. Simon Chinn, Sebastian Junger, Brett Morgen, and Marina Zenovich will all participate.
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