‘The OA’ Star Jason Isaacs Teams With ‘Damian Lewis: Spy Wars’ Producer Alaska TV To Shop Factual Space Series
EXCLUSIVE: The OA and Star Trek: Discovery actor Jason Isaacs has teamed up with British production company Alaska TV to shop a factual space project to broadcasters and streaming platforms in the U.S. and UK.
The British actor is the latest A-list star to expand into the non-scripted world and has partnered with the makers of A+E Networks’ Damian Lewis: Spy Wars to develop Jason Isaacs: Space (w/t).
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I hear that Isaacs, who is also set to star in Netflix’s reboot of The Dark Crystal, has filmed a taster tape for the docu-drama and will take the series out to the market with Alaska TV starting next week.
Isaacs will guide viewers through the true stories of skulduggery and war in space over the last 70 years. In recent history, the world’s leaders and private companies have been looking to the stars as the ultimate status symbol. It will feature stories from the U-2 to Reagan’s Star Wars, as well as the billionaire-funded space race featuring the likes of Elon Musk and Richard Branson and India’s recent military space programme and Trump’s brand new Space Force. It will also explore the characters, best kept secrets and extraordinary technology behind this boom.
The premium series will be shot across the world and will include first-hand testimony as well as archive and drama reconstruction. Isaacs will host and will also exec produce alongside Alaska TV co-founders Ian Lamarra, Chris Fouracre and Paul Sommers.
Alaska TV is currently in production with Homeland star Damian Lewis’ first factual series, an eight-part docu-drama for UK network History and its parent company A+E Networks, produced in association with Lewis’ own Rookery Productions, that tell the true stories behind some of the most important international spy operations of the last forty years. The company has also been responsible for series including BBC Earth’s Fishing Impossible and Channel 4 comedy series Very British Problems, which featured the likes of James Corden, and Coastal Railways with Julie Walters for Channel 4.
Armageddon star Isaacs told Deadline “I’ve always loved space. Who doesn’t? I’ve been lucky enough to captain a Starship, fly through a black hole to hell and save the world from a giant asteroid. Mostly it’s gone wrong for me, of course, but fake space has been fun. Luckily, because of the doors that have been open to me, I know that exploring the real people, the real secrets, the real space wars will be more incredible, more dramatic and more surprising than any story Hollywood can tell. Will we save humankind, destroy ourselves or just let the mega-rich wave their rockets at each other to see who’s got the biggest? This show will find out all this and more in an entirely original way and, because this isn’t my day job, I’ll be telling the stories you never normally hear and asking the questions that we all normally shout at the screen. What could possibly go wrong?”
Lamarra said that Alaska, as an independent producer without any first-look deals or distributor tie-ins can take the project to all networks and platforms. “I am so excited by this project. I want Alaska to be known for packaging the biggest names in world television with the perfect projects. These types of blue-chip projects have worldwide appeal through both the talent and the subject matter so I’m looking forward to talking to commissioners in the U.S. and UK to find the best home for the show.”
Fouracre added, “Alaska has put together the very best docu-drama team with the most visual and narrative flare, which, combined with Jason’s intimate experience of high end film production and passion for space and will make the show a must-see series.”
Isaacs is repped by Gersh, Silver Lining Entertainment and Independent Talent Group in London.
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