With Ridley Scott’s The Martian roaring its way towards us, there’s renewed interest in the more scientific angles of space on screen. And now Warner Bros. is developing a drama about a man who helped spearhead that in popular culture: Carl Sagan.
Sagan was an astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist and communicator who, through his passion for science and its advancement, helped bring astronomy and other disciplines to a much wider audience through public appearances, books, articles and his hugely successful TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which aired in 1980. His work was adapted into the likes of Contact, Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 sci-fi adventure. A frequent guest on talk shows, he also became famous for including messages on the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. He was married three times and had five children across his relationships.
Sagan died in 1996 and his widow, Ann Druyan is one of the producers behind the new film. She also, along with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane, launched a new version of Cosmos, which aired last year.
What the new Sagan drama will focus on remains unknown, though there is plenty to choose from. Druyan will produce along with Interstellar’s Lynda Obst, and Zach Dean is aboard to write the script.