Nat Geo Sets Projects with Ron Howard, Alex Gibney, Tom Fontana & More

BEVERLY HILLS: Three new projects are in the works for National Geographic Channel, including the global event series Red Planet, which boasts Brian Grazer and Ron Howard as executive producers.

Red Planet will tell the epic story of the quest to colonize Mars and the first manned mission in 2032. It will use elements of scripted drama and visual effects, intercut with documentary verité and interviews from present-day scientists and innovators. The project comes from Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg of Imagine Entertainment and Justin Wilkes and Dave O’Connor of RadicalMedia. It is slated to launch on National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and in 44 languages in 2016.

The network has also lined up a new documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, Parched. Produced by Gibney's Jigsaw Productions, the doc will spotlight the global water crisis. It will delve into such issues as privatization, factory farming, energy extraction and chemical dumping. The format will be produced as a TV miniseries and as a feature documentary that will have a limited theatrical release. Like Red Planet, Parched will air globally in 171 countries on Nat Geo.

A scripted limited series has been ordered by Nat Geo as well. Last Man Out comes from executive producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. It will tell the story of the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.