Will Smith is taking you to a whole new world soon. But first he’s gonna help you explore parts of this one you’ve never seen before. Smith, who was recently cast as Genie in Disney’s live-action “Aladdin,” has been tapped as the host of National Geographic’s new 10-episode global event series, “One Strange Rock.”
The Academy Award-nominated actor announced he was joining the project, from filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and producer Jane Root, with a short teaser video on his Facebook on Tuesday.
In “One Strange Rock,” Smith will guide viewers on an epic journey across the globe and into outer space. The series promises to be a “thrilling, mind-bending trip within and beyond planet Earth” that affirms “there really is no place like home.”
“One Strange Rock” is the extraordinary story of Earth — our curiously calibrated, interconnected planet — and why it is special and uniquely brimming with life among a largely unknown but harsh cosmic arena. Anchoring the series is an elite group of astronauts who see Earth’s bigger picture; they provide unique perspectives and relate personal memoirs of our planet seen from space.
“I am thrilled to have Will Smith on board to guide our series,” Aronofsky said in a press release. “His charisma, intelligence and humanity will add greatly to the project, helping welcome viewers into this unique narrative about the mind-blowing wonders that make life on Earth possible.”
“Our goal here is to reimagine factual programming and give viewers a cinematic spectacle like they have never seen before,” Root added. “We’ll unpack the science behind our marvelous planet, and provide stories that are entertaining and provocative; and who better to do that with than the visionary Darren Aronofsky and his partners at Protozoa Pictures, the incomparable Will Smith and our team of legendary astronauts?”
National Geographic is more than proud of the stellar line-up they’ve assembled for the limited series, including Smith, Aronofsky, Root and those impressive astronauts.
“By pairing the incomparable, out-of-this-world, global appeal of Will Smith with our rock-star astronauts, who literally went out of this world, we tell the incredible story of the complexities of our planet,” says Tim Pastore, president, original programming and production at Nat Geo. “With the distinctive storytelling from Aronofsky and Root, ‘One Strange Rock’ will be an incredible visual treat, taking audiences from the microscopic to the cosmic, leaving viewers to see and appreciate our planet as never before.”
The Nutopia and Protozoa Pictures series is scheduled to premiere globally on National Geographic in March 2018 in 172 countries and 43 languages.
Watch the teaser video for “One Strange Rock” above.