posted 07-26-2017 01:30 PM               

Leonardo DiCaprio relaunching 'The Right Stuff' as National Geographic TV series

"The Right Stuff," journalist Tom Wolfe's venerable tale of real-life test pilots and early astronauts, is being developed as a new dramatic series for television by Leonardo DiCaprio for National Geographic.

The deal, announced Tuesday (July 25), will see DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson of Los Angeles-based Appian Way Productions executive produce the series, which will adapt Wolfe's 1979 book about NASA's Mercury astronauts as a starting point. "The Right Stuff" series will be produced in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television.

posted 02-10-2019 06:52 PM               

National Geographic Greenlights to Series The Right Stuff, an Adaptation of Tom Wolfe's Best-Seller that Recounts the Pioneering Chapter of the Historic U.S. Space Race

From Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Are Executive Producers; Mark Lafferty ("Castle Rock," "Halt and Catch Fire") Tapped as Executive Producer and Showrunner; David Nutter ("Game of Thrones," "Band of Brothers") Will Direct Premiere Episode

National Geographic, with Appian Way and Warner Horizon Scripted Television, announced today (Feb. 8) that "The Right Stuff," an adaptation of Tom Wolfe's iconic, best-selling nonfiction account of the early days of the U.S. space program, has been greenlit to series. Production will begin this Fall 2019.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are executive producers, along with Mark Lafferty ("Castle Rock," "Halt and Catch Fire"), who signs on as showrunner. David Nutter ("Game of the Thrones," "Band of Brothers") is set to direct and executive produce the series premiere episode. Will Staples ("Animals," "Shooter") will also executive produce.

"The Right Stuff" takes a clear-eyed, non-nostalgic look at the lives of these ambitious astronauts and their families, who became instant celebrities in a competition that would either kill them or make them immortal.

The first season, which uses the book as its starting point, takes place at the height of the Cold War in 1958, when the Soviets are dominating the space race. The public is in fear of a nation in decline, so the U.S. government conceives of a solution — NASA's Project Mercury — creating the country's premier astronauts from a handful of the military's adrenaline-junkie test pilots. Seven individuals, known as the Mercury Seven, are plucked from obscurity and soon forged into heroes long before they have achieved a single heroic act. Within the heart of this historic drama that's populated by deeply human characters, two archrivals — John Glenn and Alan Shepard — jockey to be the first in space.

Subsequent seasons of The Right Stuff will carry through to the epochal Apollo Space Program, where humankind saw one of its greatest achievements — man setting foot on the moon — and missions beyond.

"The behind-the-scenes stories of the astronauts in Tom Wolfe's bestseller 'The Right Stuff' are engaging, provocative and timeless," says Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president, global scripted content and documentary films. "The book's narrative aligns perfectly with the qualities that we look for in scripted projects: fact-based, wildly entertaining and pushing the limits of human achievement."

"'The Right Stuff' is about a moment when the country looked in the same direction to achieve the stuff of fantasy, and on a timeline that was nearly impossible," says Lafferty. "The story is a reminder of what we're capable of, but it also shows how much we've changed and diversified over time. National Geographic is the perfect home to showcase the ambitious and colorful characters at the center of this pioneering era."

This project marks the second collaboration between National Geographic and Appian Way, following the release of the critically acclaimed climate change documentary "Before the Flood," which reached more than 76 million unique total viewers worldwide across linear, digital, streaming and social platforms — making it the one of the most watched films ever released.

posted 04-30-2019 08:27 PM               

[Space Coast Film Commissioner Bonnie] said she got confirmation recently that "The Right Stuff" would film here and in the Orlando area, although many details are still being worked out.

King said she is pleased that the Space Coast was selected as a filming location, since "this is where it all happened. It's the right thing to do for 'The Right Stuff.'"

...King said she has been working with the production team over a period of months in scouting potential sites to film the show.

posted 05-31-2019 11:58 AM               

Adams will play Maj. John Glenn in the drama from Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Warner Horizon Scripted Television. It takes a look at what would become America's first "reality show," as ambitious astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that either will kill them or make them immortal in the quest to be a part of Project Mercury.

Glenn is a revered test pilot and committed family man with unwavering principles. He is the only astronaut to have experienced fame before Project Mercury, and he immediately locks horns with Alan Shepard in an unrelenting fight to be the first man in space.

posted 06-14-2019 12:07 PM               

• Alan Shepard: Jake McDorman ("What We Do in the Shadows")
  
• Gus Grissom: Michael Trotter ("Underground")
  
• John Glenn: Patrick J. Adams ("Suits")
  
• Scott Carpenter: James Lafferty ("Castle Rock")
  
• Wally Schirra: Aaron Staton ("Narcos: Mexico")
  
• Gordon Cooper: Joe Dempsie ("Game of Thrones")
  
• Deke Slayton: Micah Stock ("Escape at Dannemora")

posted 07-29-2019 08:45 PM               

Cast of National Geographic's 'The Right Stuff' experiences the real stuff at NASA

The stars of National Geographic's upcoming "The Right Stuff" have now experienced some of the real stuff.

Cast members from the new television series had the chance recently to climb in and around supersonic jets at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as they prepared to portray the space agency's original Mercury 7 astronauts. "The Right Stuff" is based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 book by the same title, which chronicled the United States' first human spaceflight program and was the basis for the 1983 film directed by Philip Kaufman.

posted 08-03-2019 09:04 PM               

Glenn is a revered test pilot and committed family man with unwavering principles. He is the only astronaut to have experienced fame before Project Mercury...

posted 08-12-2019 06:36 PM               

Join Jake McDorman (What We Do in the Shadows, Lady Bird), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time,) Aaron Staton (Narcos: Mexico, Castle Rock), Michael Trotter (Underground, The Evening Hour), Micah Stock (Brittany Runs a Marathon, Escape at Dannemora), and James Lafferty (The Haunting of Hill House, Small Town Crime) as they give fans the first look at the early days of production on the series.

"The Right Stuff" fan experiences will launch Saturday, August 24, with a cast autograph signing and meet-and-greet at Talent Central from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. Then, over at Center Stage from 2:30 to 3 p.m., the cast will sit down with special guest moderator, retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, for an out-of-this-world Q&A and first look at the series. Immediately following, from 3 to 3:50 p.m. at the Walt Disney Television booth, fans will get another chance to meet and take pictures with the cast and Stott. Finally, at 4:30 p.m., the cast will serve as Grand Marshalls for the D23 Street Party, leading the festive indoor parade across the show room floor inside the convention center.

posted 08-12-2019 08:20 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by albatron:
Glenn was a revered test pilot? Hmm.

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posted 05-05-2020 05:15 PM               

NatGeo launches first look at new Disney+ Mercury 7 series 'The Right Stuff'

National Geographic offered a first look at its recreation of the first American spaceflight on the same day 59 years ago that NASA astronaut Alan Shepard demonstrated that he had "the right stuff" to launch into the new frontier.

In a trailer released on Tuesday (May 5) — the anniversary of Shepard's 1961 mission, National Geographic premiered clips from its upcoming Disney+ series, "The Right Stuff." The 90-second video includes scenes replicating Shepard's Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket poised on its Cape Canaveral launchpad, as well as the control center from where NASA's original astronaut flights were managed.

posted 07-25-2020 09:17 PM               

'The Right Stuff' cast debuts first clip from NatGeo and Disney+ space series

A missing piece of mail almost derails Alan Shepard's future in a first look scene from the pilot episode of "The Right Stuff."

Released on Saturday (July 25) as part of a San Diego Comic-Con@Home virtual panel with the cast and crew of the upcoming National Geographic scripted series, the clip was set up by actor Jake McDorman, who portrays the real-life astronaut who became the first American to launch off of Earth.

posted 08-20-2020 12:10 PM               

NatGeo sets October launch date for 'The Right Stuff' on Disney+

"The Right Stuff" now has a launch date.

National Geographic's new scripted series about America's first astronauts is set to blast off on Oct. 9 on the Disney+ streaming service. Based on journalist Tom Wolfe's 1979 bestselling book by the same title, "The Right Stuff" dramatizes the history behind NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts as the United States' raced the Soviet Union to put the first human into space.

"The incredible story of America's first astronauts begins right here on Earth in the Disney+ original series 'The Right Stuff,' with a two-episode premiere on Friday, October 9," Disney and National Geographic announced on Thursday (Aug. 20).

posted 09-15-2020 07:55 PM               

Science, Adventure, Exploration: The Mercury 7 story is right for our time. Starts Oct. 9 on Disney+

posted 10-05-2020 10:45 AM               

NASA 'hallowed ground' sets the stage for NatGeo's 'The Right Stuff'

Launch Complex 5 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station has stood dormant for almost 60 years. It has been nearly as long since Hangar S supported NASA's human spaceflight program. And it was a decade ago Mercury Mission Control was demolished.

But come Friday (Oct. 9), all three historic facilities will return to their former glory in "The Right Stuff," National Geographic's new series streaming on Disney+. Through a combination of recreations, computer graphics and unprecedented on-site access, "The Right Stuff" provides the stage for Tom Wolfe's written account of the original Mercury 7 astronauts to lift off again, this time for the small screen.

posted 10-09-2020 12:05 AM               

'The Right Stuff' lifts off on Disney+, takes flight from book, film

Patrick J. Adams discovered his passion for space exploration within its pages. Michael Trotter found he was drawn into the test pilots story in the movie. Jake McDorman only dove into it after joining the production.

Like the Disney+ series in which they appear, the cast of National Geographic's "The Right Stuff" drew inspiration from Tom Wolfe's 1979 bestselling book by the same title and director Philip Kaufman's 1983 film adaptation of the same. The new show, which premieres Friday (Oct. 9), builds upon both to delve into the lives of NASA's original Mercury 7 astronauts.

"This is an opportunity to really tell the full story, which is why I am told Tom Wolfe gave his full blessing," said Aaron Staton, who portrays astronaut Wally Schirra in the television show. "He was really thrilled because he always wanted more of that story to be told."

posted 10-09-2020 01:35 PM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: Meet the Mercury 7 astronauts ('Sierra Hotel', 'Goodies')

"The Right Stuff" lifts off with a countdown to a liftoff.

Now streaming on Disney+, National Geographic's "The Right Stuff" tells the story of NASA's original Mercury astronauts, based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 bestselling book and the 1983 film adaptation by the same title. The show launched on Friday (Oct. 9) with the first two hours of the eight-episode series.

Warning: What follows contains spoilers for the first two episodes, "Sierra Hotel" and "Goodies." Skip ahead to the end of the article if you only want to read about the real space history portrayed on screen.

posted 10-09-2020 04:46 PM               

To space history buffs, the finer points of how the Mercury astronaut selection progressed from 508 test pilots to 110 to 32 to seven is fascinating. To the average, casually-interested-in-space member of the public, though, that level of detail might be seen as less compelling TV than, say, getting a few extra scenes of the testing at the Lovelace Clinic.

Trade-offs aside, the challenge in telling the Mercury 7 story is a combination of factors. You have a relatively large cast of characters: the astronauts, their wives, children and extramarital affairs, NASA managers, flight controllers, engineers, the press (including LIFE magazine) and more. You also have several levels of the same story to chose from, ranging from the astronauts' past and present (i.e. contemporary to the Mercury program) personal lives, the selection, the training, the power struggles internal to NASA and the Space Race between the U.S. and Soviet Union, to say nothing of the other social and political issues of the day.

You must also consider the medium: what works well for the small screen, what audience(s) are you reaching and what budget do you have to work with? How do you craft a compelling story that won't be a rehash of an old NASA documentary or a 1983 classic film? And how do you take a sweeping story and chop it into eight parts so that each episode can stand on its own while also fitting together to form the larger context of the series?

Having been able to screen the first five episodes, I think Appian Way, Warner Brothers Television and National Geographic did a commendable job weighing all of the above. Having met the cast and crew on the set last fall, I was impressed by the depth of knowledge they had, well beyond what was contained in the script. The cast, in particular, seemed to relish the roles they were playing and wanted to do them each justice (Patrick J. Adams, for example, spent hours digging through the Glenn archives at Ohio State University).

posted 10-16-2020 06:00 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: This is not a game ('Single Combat Warrior')

In his 1979 bestselling book "The Right Stuff," journalist Tom Wolfe wrote about the Mercury 7 astronauts as being the last of the single-combat warriors.

"The men chosen for this historic mission took on the archaic mantles of the single-combat warriors of a long-since-forgotten time. They would not be going into space to do actual combat ... [but] they were risking their lives for their country, for their people, in 'the fateful testing,'" Wolfe wrote.

The third episode of National Geographic's "The Right Stuff, which debuted Friday (Oct. 16) on the Disney+ premium streaming service, borrows the phrase for its title, "Single Combat Warrior."

posted 10-23-2020 08:00 AM               

'The Right Stuff' recap: We've got a lot of catching up to do ('Advent')

The moon comes into focus in the fourth episode of National Geographic's "The Right Stuff."

Now on Disney+, the docudrama series based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 book by the same title follows NASA and its original Mercury 7 astronauts as they race against the Soviets to put the first humans into space.

posted 10-26-2020 12:24 PM            

Is anyone getting a general feel for the series overall? I'm caught up and I really like aspects of it. Its fictionalized, but it benefits from a lot of the books about the Mercury-era written after Tom Wolfe penned his book. It certainly portrays the "NASA side" of "The Right Stuff" more effectively than the film did.

That said, I find myself missing Wolfe's tone. The series lacks the over-the-top bombastic flare of Wolfe's prose and I am not sure how exactly I feel about that. Some bits are there subtly, in the episode titles and in some brief moments but it feels like a generic re-telling of the Mercury era. Like it shouldn't even be called "The Right Stuff", but something else, as its own piece.

posted 10-27-2020 05:31 PM               

To be honest, this series wasn't made for a guy like me who witnessed Project Mercury live (on television) but for this new generation unfamiliar with the stories.

It is missing Tom Wolfe's "voice" but the 1983 Phillip Kaufman film was visually stunning but treated Gus so badly.

This series is slowly fleshing out each character and I hope it lasts long enough to give each flight the "From the Earth to the Moon" treatment. I want to see the astronauts with JFK, I want to see Slayton's story about being grounded and then the flight being awarded to Glenn's backup and not Slayton's. I want to see Kraft's reaction to Carpenter's flight and hope Carpenter gets a fair shake.