“I think it’s a sign of amazing confidence in themselves and the audience,” said Root, now an independent producer.

The project aims to explore the various tipping points that shaped the country’s trajectory, with each hour covering five events. Along with the usual interviews with historians, the series is making heavy use of CGI technology to re-create events such as the construction of the Statue of Liberty and the expansion of the railroad across the Rockies. “We want to tell it in a way that draws people in the way a movie would,” Dubuc said. “It’s OK to be entertaining.”

Read full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-tv-history3-2010jan03,0,7729958.story

History has lined up Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Colin Powell, Brian Williams and other notables to participate in the docu series that the cabler is calling the most ambitious original programming initiative in its own history.

Set to bow next year, the 12-part “America The Story of Us” series will cover a 400-year sweep of the nation’s history and pre-history. The cabler is prepping elaborate educational materials to distribute to schools in tandem with the series.

“America” is exec produced by Jane Root, former prexy of Discovery Channel and BBC2, through her Nutopia production banner. Series will focus on the elements that distinguish American democracy, the conflicts that shaped it and the myriad social and industrial innovations that have fueled the country’s prosperity. On-camera commentators — also set to include Buzz Aldrin, Gen. Tommy Franks, Donald Trump, John Lasseter and Stevie Wonder — will share their thoughts on the “building” of the nation, according to History.

“What distinguishes American history from that of any other country is how everyday people built this nation from the ground up,” said History prexy-general manager Nancy Dubuc. “American history truly belongs to the people and causes us to reflect on who we are, and how we will shape the future of the country.”

By CYNTHIA LITTLETON

Variety 2009

The move binds the two together for two-years, during which BBCWW will handle UK and international distribution of all Nutopia programmes.

BBCWW said it was looking forward to working with the indie, which was set up in 2008 by Root, and predicted it would become an internationally renowned producer.

Nutopia is currently producing America: The Story of US, a 12-part series looking at the history of America, which is likely to be the first title BBCWW handles. No new programmes have been announced.

Nutopia CEO Root said: “This is a really dynamic time for Nutopia, and we are already developing some really ambitious and innovative programming for broadcasters on both sides of the Atlantic. We are very excited to be working with BBCWW going forward. As a top distributor to territories across the globe, it is the perfect partner for our titles.”

The start-up surfaced in October 2008, with Root at the helm. Much speculation had surrounded her future after she left her role as controller of Discovery Channel in the US, with many predicting she would take up the reigns as controller of BBC1 or HBO.

Jesse Whittock
2 Dec 2009
© C21 Media 2009

We complete drama principal photography down in Cape Town in time for Christmas 2009. Lots of exciting footage from the Pilgrim fathers to Prohibition currently being shot. It’s going brilliantly and the sun is shining brightly despite a couple of freak thunderstorms earlier in the month.

Meanwhile we are crossing America from New York to New Mexico interviewing leading American figures. So far in the can is General David Petraeus, Donald Trump, General Colin Powell, Melissa Etheridge and Buzz Aldrin. Elsewhere in America (South Dakota to be exact) another filming unit has been tracking wild bison as they roam across the great plains and staging some old-fashioned Cowboys and Indians action.

Back in London we’re into the edit of the first batch of shows and into our sixth coffee of the day..

Watch this space.

Development is moving on at a fast pace with some big ideas at advanced stages.

Jackson, currently non-executive chairman at STV, and Bazalgette, non-executive chairman of Sony Pictures Television’s UK production business, will form a four-strong team including managing director Laura Franses, who was previously acting managing director at Raw TV and chief operating officer of Amaze TV. Root is the new company’s chief executive.
Nutopia, which is based in both London and Washington DC, will specialise in “high-scale” productions on “classic subjects”. Its focus will be factual and factually-inspired drama.

Nutopia’s first commission is a 12 x 60-minute history series called America: The Story of Us. It will use CGI technology and dramatisation to show how a combination of visionary thinkers and innovations in technology and engineering have helped build the modern America.

The indie is currently developing projects for BBC1, BBC2, ITV and Discovery Channel US.

Root quit her post as president of Discovery Channel US in 2007. There she commissioned some of the network’s biggest hits, including Man vs Wild, Born Survivor and Deadliest Catch.

There has been much speculation over Root’s next move since she left Discovery in November 2007 after three years, saying she wanted to return to the UK to pursue other opportunities.

She was tipped as a top candidate for the role of BBC1 controller, which was vacated by Peter Fincham following the Queengate scandal that October. The role, however, eventually went to Jay Hunt.

Root (left) was also rumoured to be in contention for the role of HBO Entertainment president after Carolyn Strauss left in March 2008. That job was filled by Sue Naegle.

While few would have expected Root to bow out of the channel executive business altogether, she does have experience with successful production start-ups. Before joining the Beeb as its first female channel controller, Root was a founder of UK indie Wall to Wall, which has since been acquired by the Shed group and made a coveted move into the US.

Nutopia’s first project will be America: The Story of Us, a 12×60′ commission for US cablenet History that is due for delivery in 2010.

The series will tell the story of how modern America came to be, looking at the role of innovations in technology and engineering, conflicts and visionary thinkers in shaping the US into the most powerful country in the world. The production will use CGI technology and dramatisation techniques.

“America: The Story of Us is not only the biggest project History has ever undertaken, it is the definitive event of the genre, underlining History’s ownership,” said the network’s executive VP and general manager, Nancy Dubuc.

“There has never been a time when people are thinking so fervently and passionately about history. Now is the moment to tell the most epic, essential and groundbreaking story of America in a new way for a new generation.”

Emily Brookes
12 May 2009
© C21 Media 2009

Jane Root has formed her own production company, Nutopia, and has won a major commission from History US.

The former BBC2 controller and Discovery Channel president and general manager has been off the radar since she left the US network in 2007.

The first commission for Nutopia will be docu-drama America: The Story of Us. The 12 x 60-minute series will detail the story of how modern America came to be.

Using CGI technology and dramatisation, viewers will see how innovations in technology and engineering, conflicts and visionary thinkers made the US the country it is today.

The series will be delivered in 2010.

Author: Robert Shepherd.

The series tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented, looking at the moments where technology overcame the environment – from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental roads and railways – the internet of its day – to triumphing over vertical space from steel structured buildings to putting a man on the moon. This is history with roots in the physical world: wilderness, animals, weather, the sea. AMERICA THE STORY OF US is also a story of conflict – Indian wars, slavery, the revolutionary war that birthed the nation, the civil war that divided it and the great world wars that shaped its future. The series is an immersive look at the forces – the people, places and things that created this most astounding country. It’s a tough and thrilling adventure.

“There has never been a time when people are thinking so fervently and passionately about History. Now is the moment to tell the most epic, essential and groundbreaking story of America in a new way for a new generation,” says Dubuc. “AMERICA THE STORY OF US is not only the biggest project HISTORY has ever undertaken, it is the definitive event of the genre, underlining History’s ownership. This series is bigger than us, it is far broader than TV and we are thrilled to embark on this journey. With this series, we will watch America literally grow before our eyes, as we celebrate the individual stories, the people and events, and the incredible landscape that have become the America of today.”

Each hour of the series will help answer pertinent questions while exploring key events, interspersed with interviews from top flight historians as Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. Beginning with a sense of the wild vastness that was America as the first colonists arrived, and with unprecedented CGI technology, viewers will see villages become towns; the spread of habitation and forest clearance from stockades, along river valleys to inland hamlets; a tree- covered Manhattan, with Europeans clinging to the tip of New Amsterdam, behind the slave-built wall of Wall Street. There will be vast herds of buffalo making their way across the plains, railway tracks slowly crossing the Rockies.

These stories will be told in the immediate and present tense, through drama-documentary powered by narration, visualized in the moment as never before – this is history before it knows it is history.

Says Dubuc, “A complete television history of America has not been attempted since Alistair Cooke in the 1970s. This is a new kind of landmark television. This will be a national television event.”

AMERICA THE STORY OF US is produced for HISTORY by Nutopia, a new production company started by Jane Root, former President of Discovery Channel. Prior to that Jane ran BBC2, and was a founder of the production company Wall to Wall Television. Jane Root is Executive Producer and Ben Goold is Series Showrunner. For HISTORY, David McKillop and Julian P. Hobbs are Executive Producers.

HISTORY™ and HISTORY HD™ are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event-driven specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network’s program offerings are hit series such as Ax Men, Battle 360, The Universe, Cities of The Underworld and Ice Road Truckers, as well as acclaimed specials including 102 Minutes That Changed America, King, Life After People, 1968 with Tom Brokaw, Nostradamus:2012 and Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, four Primetime Emmy® Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor’s Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network’s Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network’s latest initiative connecting America’s schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY web site, located at www.history.com, is the definitive historical online source that delivers entertaining and informative content featuring broadband video, interactive timelines, maps, games, podcasts and more.

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For Immediate Release

PRESS CONTACTS:
Vicky Kahn
HISTORY
212-210-9743
vicky.kahn@aetn.com

For more information on Nutopia:
Franklin Rae Communications
+44 (0) 20 7317 5400
Richard Ware
richard@franklinrae.com
Jill Franklin
jill@franklinrae.com