{"id":16228,"date":"2021-05-26T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-06-22T16:00:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T20:00:54","slug":"stephen-david-on-remaking-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen David on Remaking History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen David talks to <\/em>TV Real about his new HISTORY event series <\/em>The Titans That Built America.<\/em><\/p>\n

Putting the finishing touches on his three-part event miniseries The Titans That Built America<\/em>, which premieres on The HISTORY Channel on May 31 (Memorial Day in the U.S.), Stephen David was reminded that history does frequently repeat itself. Using a mix of scripted drama, archival footage and talking heads, The Titans That Built America <\/em>chronicles the stories of Pierre du Pont, Walter Chrysler, J.P. Morgan Jr., Henry Ford and William Boeing, fierce rivals who ultimately combined their resources to help America win the Second World War.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was weird to be telling a story that was happening as I was making it,\u201d David tells TV Real<\/em>. \u201cWe were making a story that happens after a pandemic, with a roaring 1920s, a market crash and then a depression, a new deal and a wealth tax.\u201d With President Biden working to put in place his American Jobs Plan amid the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the parallels to today were clear to David. \u201cIt was actually kind of hard to stay neutral constantly,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can\u2019t give an opinion, we just have to tell the story, but there\u2019s no way not to talk about it when it\u2019s in the news!\u201d<\/p>\n

Produced by Banijay-owned Stephen David Entertainment and distributed by A+E Networks, The Titans That Built America<\/em> serves as a follow-up to the Emmy-winning The Men Who Built America<\/em>. That miniseries, broadcast on HISTORY in 2012, focused on J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, exploring how they shaped America from the end of the Civil War through to the beginning of World War I. Titans<\/em> picks up the story of America in 1918 and runs through 1945, examining how du Pont, Chrysler, Morgan Jr., Ford and Boeing revolutionized motoring, aviation, construction and weaponry.<\/p>\n

Asked how he set out to compress 50 years of history into a three-night event, David says, \u201cI do have a method. I have everyone do research; tell me everything that happened over those 50 years. I put note cards over all the walls. And then, I use a string and start to try to find a story. And I ask more questions and more questions. That takes about six months. On this one, it actually took one year. You have to know everything to figure out what story you\u2019re going to tell. By the time you\u2019re finished, if you\u2019ve done it right, it looks like, Of course that\u2019s the story you\u2019re telling! What else would it be?\u201d<\/p>\n

The series was shot in Ireland smack in the middle of the pandemic, with filming wrapping just as the country implemented a new set of Covid-19 restrictions in September. The production had 150 people on set and made it through filming without a single positive Covid case. It was, David says, a uniquely memorable experience. \u201cWe did the production meeting in an airplane hangar, with everyone in masks, 15 feet apart, using a loudspeaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the scripted reenactments, the production is peppered with a range of experts, from history professors to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. \u201cWe want diverse perspectives of this time period,\u201d David says. \u201cIt is amazing to run across people who know so much about it. We tried to find people who would give us interesting insights.\u201d<\/p>\n

For David, \u201cdigging into the psychology\u201d of these historical figures is a priority when he\u2019s making docudramas. \u201cThat psychology affects their micro world as they\u2019re trying to fill some void\u2014which then has a massive effect in the macro world. Everything changed because they were just trying to fill some personal void.\u201d<\/p>\n

David has pioneered the factual docudrama genre with credits that include The<\/em> World Wars<\/em>, The American West<\/em>, Roman Empire: Reign of Blood <\/em>and The Making of the Mob<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the harder genres to work in,\u201d he says. \u201cI used to be a screenwriter for studios. Then I was doing reality shows and documentaries. For me, it was a mashup of the two. To get the feeling right, you can\u2019t be in drama too long because then the audience starts to feel that it\u2019s not true, and you can\u2019t be in doc too long because then you\u2019re just being washed over with information, and you can\u2019t even remember what you\u2019re hearing. My hope is you can watch it as a scripted drama based on characters, but then, [you realize], Oh, this is all true!\u201d<\/p>\n

His own approach to the genre has changed since The Men Who Built America<\/em>. \u201cI think the audience is so much more evolved now. I don\u2019t know that I could have done six different main characters in one episode and the audience would have followed them. Maybe they would have, but that\u2019s not what was happening back then. I was almost doing biographies\u2014one character would hand off to another character. I didn\u2019t have them all at the same time intertwined. The audience can handle that now; they\u2019re much more sophisticated. Plus, I feel like the audience expects the characters to be more real, more complex. These people were good and bad. There are a lot of horrible people that do huge things, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Men Who Built America<\/em> paved the way for David\u2019s relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s Appian Way Productions, which is exec producing The Titans That Built America<\/em>. \u201cWhen he was up for the Oscar for The Revenant<\/em>, he was doing all these interviews and he kept talking about The Men Who Built America<\/em>. And he was saying all these great things about it! So I said, Maybe we should call them and see if he wants to do something? We did. And he did want to do something. This is the fourth project we\u2019re doing together. And we have another one after this. They are great partners. Leo is very interested in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

David, who has been part of the Banijay family since 2015, is also working on a new project with Banijay Rights. Having the backing of a global powerhouse has numerous benefits, David says. \u201cBanijay has so many different companies that I do get a perspective of what\u2019s going on in the world. I know what\u2019s hitting, what\u2019s popular. And this genre actually travels really well throughout the world. The way Banijay works, they just want you to do whatever you\u2019re going to do. They let you be whoever you\u2019re going to be, but you have the support of being part of something much bigger. It\u2019s a good combo for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen David on his new HISTORY event series The Titans That Built America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":16229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[114,5036,474,1374,5546],"class_list":["post-16228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-ae-networks","tag-banijay","tag-history","tag-stephen-david-entertainment","tag-the-titans-that-built-america","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nStephen David on Remaking History - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen David on Remaking History - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen David on his new HISTORY event series The Titans That Built America.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-26T12:00:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-22T20:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/Titans-StephenDavis-521.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/\",\"name\":\"Stephen David on Remaking History - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-26T12:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-22T20:00:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/stephen-david-on-remaking-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stephen David on Remaking History\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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