File 023121
The New Origins Project: Strange Bedfellows Science and Culture Series Proposal (File 023121)
Proposal for Lawrence Krauss's Origins Project television series featuring dialogues between cultural icons and prominent scientists, with budget breakdown and 12 proposed episode pairings.
Summary
This document outlines a proposed television series called 'Strange Bedfellows: Culture, Meet Science/Science, Meet Culture' created by Lawrence Krauss and the directorial team behind the documentary 'The Unbelievers.' The series would feature 12 episodes pairing celebrities, directors, and cultural figures with renowned scientists for moderated discussions held in live theater audiences across the US and UK. Proposed participants include Barack Obama with Steven Pinker, Woody Allen with Noam Chomsky, and Elon Musk with William Shatner, among others. The total production budget is estimated at $3.18 million, covering filming, venues, transportation, and talent fees.
The New Origins Project Presents: Strange Bedfellows: Culture, Meet Science/Science, Meet Culture
This series will bring together cultural icons, celebrities, movie stars, directors, writers and musicians with famous scientists to talk about commonalities and differences. Each segment will be moderated by scientist/author/provocateur Lawrence Krauss, who has spent much of his career successfully crossing the chasm separating science and culture. When at Arizona State University, the Origins Project he created and led for a decade there produced singular events in which over 3000 people would regularly attend live, and up to 500,000 people would watch the recorded events to hear dialogues and panels, to be entertained and informed.
First Season (Proposed—23 participants have already agreed in principle) 1. Johnny Depp, Courtney Love, Michael Manson talk creativity in music versus creativity in Science with Nobel Laureates Frank Wilczek and Yuval Hoffman. 2. Woody Allen talks about the human condition with Linguist Noam Chomsky. 3. Ricky Gervais and Astronomer Royale, former President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees. 4. Sarah Silverman and Nobel Prizewinning economist Paul Krugman. 5. William Shatner and Nobel Prize winning physicists Kip Thorne/ Steve Weinberg or Elon Musk. 6. Director Werner Herzog, Cormac McCarthy, with biologist Svante Paabo. 7. Ian McEwan and Nobel Laureate Biologist Elizabeth Blackburn. 8. Barack Obama and psychologist Steven Pinker. 9. Director Alex Garland and IT computer scientist Eric Horvitz/Larry Page 10. Actor Bill Pullman and Nobel Prizewinning economist/psychologist Danny Kahneman. 11. Actor/writer Stephen Fry and Psychologist Robert Sapolsky 12. Actress Andie Macdowell and Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins
The series will bring together Krauss and the directorial team that produced the Feature Documentary The Unbelievers. Each episode will be shot in a beautiful location in a different city around the world. We will go where the participants live, or work.
Format will be moderated discussion. Krauss will introduce each participant and begin the episode by asking some questions to provoke discussion. The participants will be encouraged whenever possible to dialogue with each other as well. The dialogues will take place among live audiences in beautiful theaters around the US and UK. We will take one or two questions from the audience to end the program before the program ends.
Rough Budget:
Filming $100K/episode $1.2 MillionVenues $50K/episode $0.6 MillionTransportation $15K/episode $0.18 MillionFees $100K/episode $1.2 Million
TOTAL Production Cost $3.18 Million