Science Channel announced today that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg will join forces with the network, DreamWorks Television and KPI Productions to create the definitive documentary series about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site in New York City.  Under the agreement, Spielberg will serve as executive producer and creative advisor on REBUILDING GROUND ZERO (wt), a six-part television event set to premiere on Science Channel in 2011.

The brainchild of professional architect Danny Forster (host and producer of Science Channel’s BUILD IT BIGGER) and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Hock, REBUILDING GROUND ZERO (wt) will chronicle the uplifting, innovative reengineering of the World Trade Center site through the eyes of the people – architects, engineers, construction workers and city planners – charged with making One World Trade Center and its surrounding area a reality.  Their amazing story is one of inventive architectural design and brand new science powered by an emotional determination to help heal their wounds, their city and their country.

So the “Clash of the Gods” series is now in the books. All ten episodes have aired. Tweets and comments from the blogosphere have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Seems the series won over some hard-core fans, which is extremely gratifying to all of us who worked on it.

Since the series premiered, probably its single-most talked about feature has been the special-effects make-up that brought the gods and monsters to such vivid life. Never before has cable TV (or really, even Hollywood) presented such a diverse, imaginative and unique cast of characters. Medusa. Grendel. Hades. The Cyclops. Each character was approached with a fresh eye for what would be most haunting and dramatic. Inspiration was taken from ancient renderings, but wasn’t slave to them. In the end, the make-up team made an enormous difference in the look of the series, and gave it the visual eye candy that really stands out from the TV pack.

Ill Willed Productions (www.illwilled.com) was the driving force behind the make-up and practical special FX. Tate Steinsiek, Matt Green and their teams worked tirelessly for months on this, and brought an energy and creativity to these characters that really pops on screen. We have our fingers crossed that they’ll get an Emmy nomination for make-up on this. But they really don’t even need one. We’re thrilled to report that IllWilled has just accepted a job on a major Hollywood film starring Al Pacino called, “Mary Mother of Christ”. And, they’ve just released a new monster-shoe line from Keds. So Ill Willed is well on its way, and KPI looks forward to saying “we knew them when.”

Christopher Cassel, Director/Writer
Clash of the Gods

Tikaboo Peak rises several thousand feet above Area 51 in southern Nevada. Yes–”ground zero” for UFO theorists. We’re here at 5 AM for a purely recreational hike, of course. It would be about 2 hours with a daypack, but we’ve decided to take a 200-pound lens with us, along with the rest of our gear.
Very slow-going up the mtn. There’s no clear trail and it’s straight uphill on slippery rock and gravel. We hired 4 locals to help carry extra weight, but the lens can only be carried about 30 feet before they have to put it down to rest. We should have hired three more.
About a third of the way up, an F-16 zooms right past us. Holy sh*t. Our guides are excited that he’s this
close, but, hey, could be just a coincidence.
Then the jet circles back again and then a third time, doing crazy turns and maneuvers. Our guys are starting to wonder if the military knows we’re here.
Suddenly a helicopter appears from the other side of the mtn–starts circling overhead as the F-16 continues to buzz us.
Now our guides are sure: This show is all for us. Area 51 knows we’re out here, climbing up this mtn with a box that looks suspiciously like a missile.
Our guys speculate about how they knew we were coming. One is very concerned about getting arrested and contemplates bailing out. We’re concerned we’ll get down the mtn and the local cops will be waiting for us to confiscate our tapes and gear.
The air show goes on for about 30 minutes. Our DP sees thru the viewfinder a guy in the helicopter, perched on the edge, staring straight down on us.
We finally make it to the peak around noon… More than 6 hours after we started. It’s 95 degrees. Everyone is tired and dehydrated, but we get to work. Below us is the U.S. Air Force military base known as Area 51, aka Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, Extraterrestial Highway. We have a great view of the base, but we see no aliens tap dancing on the runway. Why would they in this heat?

MYSTERYQUEST: ALIEN COVER-UP airs Wednesday October 14, 10PM/9c on HISTORY.

Hundreds of runestones can be found scattered across the countryside in Scandinavia. Many are memorial stones erected after the death of a family member to honor them, but there are some that are clear depictions of the myths and stories that filled the lives of the Norse centuries ago.
In February I traveled to Sweden with my Director of Photography Bo Randulff, and set out on a cross-country treasure hunt trying to track down a few specific runestones that told the myth of Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. It seems that no one has ever drawn a runestone map of Scandinavia, and there is no handy iPhone app, so we were relying on some long distance research and a little luck to find them. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack that was covered in snow!
As we arrived in a little clearing in the forest we were pretty sure that we had found the site of the large rock carving we were looking for, but it was nowhere to be seen. It suddenly occurred to us that it was most likely lying under a foot of snow. Armed with only our rental car’s ice and snow scrapers we started digging, much to the amusement of some local kids. Finally we found it, and it was worth the effort.
The evil Frost Giants of the Norse myths are certainly alive and kicking, and I would have loved a helping hand from the brave Thor and his magical hammer in defeating them. But this particular battle was between the Frost Giant’s snow and me, armed only with an ice scraper.

–Sarah Hodgson
Associate producer, Clash of the Gods

CLASH OF THE GODS: TOLKIEN’S MONSTERS airs Monday, October 5 10PM/9c on HISTORY.

Okay, that’s a wee bit simplistic (and not actually accurate…although written in spurts between 1937 and 1952, Tolkien always said that Lord of the Rings should never be read as an allegory for World War II.)

But what is it that has caused The Lord of the Rings to have sold over 150 million copies and to be translated into almost 40 languages? For me, it’s that feeling of real history, which gives Lord of the Rings its life. JRR Tolkien was obsessive about documenting his universe with dates, family trees, maps and indexes….hell, he even threw in a creation story. If it wasn’t for the fact that the characters are elves, dwarves, hobbits and wizards you’d think you were submersed in a history textbook.

So in Clash of the Gods, the goal was to figure out where all this inspiration came from. Much of The Lord of the Rings is about good overcoming evil, and Tolkien’s devout Catholicism provides the backbone. Comparisons of Frodo’s quest to Christ are plainly seen, but I think the most interesting tidbits are the ones found in Beowulf and other Norse myths. Tolkien doesn’t really hide in lifting almost exactly scenes from classic tales. The transformation of Smeagol into the creature Gollum almost exactly mirrors a tale in the Norse Volsunga Saga; and scenes like Bilbo stealing a cup in The Hobbit are directly lifted from Beowulf.

But more than any gods or monsters from ancient myth, I think it’s the personal pain that Tolkien suffered which gives The Lord of the Rings its foothold in reality. As a soldier in World War I, Tolkien was right in the middle of the action, watching friends killed and mutilated right in front of his eyes. When Tolkien writes about the same kind of suffering for Frodo there is a ring of truth that isn’t found in any other kind of fantasy writing.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter to me that Tolkien stole stuff from tales of the past…that’s pretty what all writers do. But what he did was to make it his own and transform it into something new. A feat which many writers attempt, but few do successfully.

So I’m off to re-read The Lord of the Rings…150 million people can’t be wrong.

– Ted Poole, KPI Writer and Producer

CLASH OF THE GODS: TOLKIEN’S MONSTERS airs Monday, October 5 10PM/9c on HISTORY.

[Note: the DNA testing was initiated by the KPI producing team and History Channel]

Click here to read the full story at AOL News

CLASH OF THE GODS: BEOWULF airs Monday September 28 10PM/9c on HISTORY

MysteryQuest, KPI’s new series for the History Channel, dispatches teams of experts throughout the world to solve some of mankind’s strangest and most persistent mysteries. In each episode, a science team conducts a forensic examination of the evidence using the latest technologies. By the end, the team reveals results that in some cases just may re-write history.

HITLER’S ESCAPE
Airs Wednesday September 16, 10PM/9C
According the official public record, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker as allied troops stormed Berlin at the end of World War II. But no one actually saw him die. No body was ever produced. No photographs were ever taken. Some believe Hitler managed to escape, and for years there were sightings of the former dictator in many parts of the world.
Then, in the 1990s the Russians revealed secret evidence taken from Hitler’s bunker decades earlier that they said proved he had died there. Among the evidence is a piece of skull. MysteryQuest obtained access to this evidence for testing. The results are startling.

THE DEVIL’S TRIANGLE
Airs Wednesday September 23, 10PM/9C
The Bermuda Triangle, a 500,000 square mile area in the Atlantic is the world’s greatest unexplained mystery. Ships and planes simply disappear without a trace.

The MysteryQuest team takes one of the few survivors of a Triangle encounter on a flight through it to try to determine what could be disorienting pilots. The expedition team dives in the waters of the Bahamas to try to locate the first wreckage of an aircraft lost in a Triangle disappearance.

SAN FRANCISCO SLAUGHTER
Airs Wednesday September 30, 10PM/9C
A series of unsolved murders. A cryptic set of clues. A dead end at every corner. The serial killer known as “the Zodiac” long terrorized the residents of the San Francisco Bay area while taunting police. He was never caught.

MysteryQuest’s team of investigators have identified a new suspect and with the aid of a groundbreaking new DNA technology have the chance to come one step closer to finally solving the mystery of the this murderous crime spree.

THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS
Airs Wednesday October 7, 10PM/9c
The lost city of Atlantis was said to be an incredibly advanced civilization that lived almost 12,000 years ago. Some believe they may have been capable of space travel or that it was they who showed the Egyptians how to build pyramids.

But according to the writings of Plato, the city was swallowed by the ocean in a single day. Ever since, people have been trying to find it. Mysteryquest’s expedition team has new sonar evidence of underwater structures in the Atlantic off the Bahamas. The team will dive to these sites to retrieve samples and send them for carbon dating with the latest technology to try to confirm whether they could be part of the lost city.

DEVIL’S ISLAND
Airdate TBD
This island in the middle of San Francisco Bay has a forbidding reputation. Native Americans believed it to be a place of evil spirits. When it became a federal prison in 1934, only the most violent and difficult prisoners in the U.S. were sent there.
It was reputed to be escape proof; only three men have ever managed to get off the island. They left in 1962 and have never been found. MysteryQuest investigates to determine whether they could have survived the icy waters of San Francisco Bay.

UPCOMING MYSTERYQUEST EPISODES WILL INVESTIGATE
AREA 51, STONEHENGE and THE AMITYVILLE GHOSTS.

History’s toughest journey….just got tougher. Threatened by a demonic monster (Scylla) and a deadly whirlpool (Charybdis), the greatest hero of all time continues his journey home to his wife and child.

ODYSSEUS: WARRIOR’S REVENGE airs on Monday, September 21 at 10PM/9c on HISTORY.

]]>