New TV Climate Change Series: : Years of Living Dangerously JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the process of recruiting so many Hollywood luminaries and well-known figures to get involved and to function almost as correspondents to the series, could you talk about that process? JOSEPH ROMM: Sure, absolutely. I think that sometimes we associate celebrities with these causes, but we tried to do it a very different way. First of all, we wanted to reach out to celebrities who already were very knowledgeable and committed to this cause. And a classic example is Harrison Ford. Obviously, he’s known as, you know, a screen legend, a very hard-charging hero. But he has been, for two decades, on the board of Conservation International. He is very passionate about conservation, very passionate about climate change. And in episode one and two, you see him, you know, learning more about climate change. He actually starts the show off, episode one, in a jet plane. He actually takes over the jet plane. This is a jet plane that NASA has converted from military purposes to monitoring greenhouse gases. And he goes from there to learn from scientists that deforestation is one of the big sources of heat-trapping gases, and so he goes to Indonesia, where he’s told, you know, this is one of the worst situations. And he becomes—he is—it’s unscripted. He’s learning. He becomes engaged, and he ultimately becomes outraged, as what’s happening. In the end of episode one, which is available on YouTube for free, he says, you know, when he sees the deforestation, which you will be able to see in really gorgeous, gorgeous videos—he sees what’s happened, and he’s set to meet the minister of forestry, and he says, I can’t wait to meet the minister of forestry. I can’t wait. And that’s one of the other reasons we have celebrities involved, is they can get access. He’s able—Harrison Ford is able to meet with the head of one of the largest companies doing deforestation. He’s able to meet with the minister of forestry of Indonesia. And then he’s able to meet with the president of Indonesia. And by the second episode, he’s actually able to get them to, you know, at least publicly announce that they are going to change some of their policies, besides being just a very compelling figure as Harrison is. And let me make one more point. I have seen this on the big screen now in a couple of screenings, TV—movie screens. And I don’t think that—if you see this on a big screen or a big TV set, you will think that this was a movie. You will not think, Oh, man, this is just like some made-for-TV thing. This is—the cinematography, the high definition is just spectacular, and I think people will be blown away just by the images, let alone the compelling human drama. democracynow.org/2014/4/11/years_of_living_dangerously_james_cameron
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 20:39:30 +0000
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