EXCLUSIVE: Twenty years ago, National Geographic launched its Academy Award-winning doc March of the Penguins and later this month the Disney-owned network returns to nature’s cutest and fluffiest birds with Secrets of the Penguins.
Above, we’ve got an exclusive clip from the doc, which forms part of the Secrets of… franchise backed by James Cameron, who acts as an exec producer.
Blake Lively‘s voice can heard explaining how penguins make a “turbulent entry” into wave-battered caves at the end of the Namib desert to avoid hungry jackals and find safe havens to raise their young and life partners for themselves. “For jackals, it’s out of the question. Outsmarted by a bird brain,” quips narrator Lively.
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The clip follows with a series of shots filmed inside the cave – a world first – as chicks chirp for their moms and dads, and would-be parents wander around looking for love. “Single females are few and far between,” explains Lively. “Because like many penguins, African penguin couples stay together for life.”
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These are the moments of discovery and wonder that Janet Han Vissering, SVP, Program Development and Production at Nat Geo, looks for in Secrets of… programs. “We always look for the standout emotion and character that people can visibly see is happening,” she told Deadline in an exclusive interview.
Secrets of the Penguins already has one of those moments in the bag in the shape of footage released last year that caught baby emperor penguins jumping off Antarctica’s 50-foot Ekström ice shelf into the water below. Martin Williams, founder of Secrets of the Penguins maker Talesmith, recalled how rumors of free-diving chicks had emerged through satellite evidence, but that his crew, led by cinematographer and lead storyteller Bertie Gregory, were the first to capture it happening on film. “No-one had ever gone out with a camera unit to find out what actually was going on there,” he said.
Han Vissering remembered receiving news of the stunning footage, and how that led to Nat Geo making the unusual choice of releasing a key scene online over a year before the series was set to launch on Nat Geo. “Bertie texted me and said, ‘I have shot something that is going to break the internet. For real.’ He sent it to me and when I saw that very rough version of the cliff jump, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to break the internet.'”
The four-and-a-half minute clip currently has eight million views on Nat Geo’s main YouTube channel along with 85,000 likes, and has drummed up interest in the big-ticket doc ahead of its April 20 bow on Nat Geo. (All episodes launch on Disney+ and Hulu a day after, on April 21, with Disney Channel playing the first episode on April 22, aka Earth Day.)
“It’s joyful when you get moments of proper documentary in these programme,” said Emmy- and Bafta-winner Williams, who launched UK-based unscripted producer Talesmith in 2014. He recalled another scene, in which a rockhopper penguin being chased by a sea lion 70 times its size decided to stop running and face down its giant pursuer, squawking and jabbing its tiny beak. “You can’t plan for that sort of thing,” he added.
“The Secrets of… franchise is all about world firsts and the secret world of these creatures, and part of the remit from Janet Han Vissering was to give people something they haven’t been seen before,” said Ruth Roberts, Talesmith’s Creative Director, who exec produced the three-part series alongside Williams, Hollywood director Cameron and Maria Wilhelm for Lightstorm Earth and Pam Caragol for Nat Geo. Gregory – who spent two years working with world-leading scientists and filming in extreme conditions using cutting-edge camera technology on the project – was the producer and Serena Davies the series producer. Shooting took place across nine locations, including Antartica and the Namib.
“It’s a big, bold, ambitious blue-chip project full of high-stakes drama,” said Roberts. “We feel very proud of what we’ve pulled off here: The volume of world-firsts, depth of stories and revelations of penguin behavior.”
Han Vissering revealed the process behind selecting companies to produce for the Secrets of… franchise. “Because we’re dealing with different species for each season, it’s really important they have the skillset and creative whereabouts to deliver for each species within the franchise,” she said. In the case of Talesmith – whose bosses come from specialist factual backgrounds (if we’re using UK parlance) and make docs on topics as broad as the history of video games (Games That Rocked the World) to augmented reality (President Zelensky’s Hologram) – Han Vissering had specific requirements.
“I wanted to a company that was able to build characters – and not just a one-note character, but a multi-faceted character out of a black and white bird. There had to be cleverness in the storytelling from the narrative and characterisation, and the emotional takeaway.”
She noted that Talesmith’s ability to pivot was also crucial, especially with climate change making filming more unpredictable than ever. In one case, a shoot was shut down due to an outbreak of avian flu. “When you go down to the places that we film, with all the changes in climate and unpredictability of the seas, you can only plan for the best,” she added. “We had to pivot, and we didn’t have extra money, but the team was able to extract an amazing episode with less.”
“Natural history makers are often on the frontlines of such things,” said Williams. “Climate change makes shooting more complicated and less predictable. It was not plain sailing by any stretch, but we were in the privileged position of having our teams in place for long periods of time in ways that scientists often don’t get. Having our cameras in the Antarctic for nine months meant our footage has become scientific document that will be poured over for years as we try to understand penguin behavior.”
Having Hollywood A-listers also helps, of course. Away from her ongoing clash with It Ends With US co-star Justin Baldoni, Lively’s narration gave the scripts “a while different complexion and layers to it,” said Williams. “Her take on it wasn’t always what was planned, but that’s the joy of a good actor. They bring something unexpected.”
Similarly, Williams said Cameron’s input, which included questions on the production “right from the start,” was crucial to development. “James took a real interest in the exploration. He was super fascinated by the over-winter team. They have a connection as explorers – he has been to the bottom of the ocean and they were out there for 274 days without any ability to come home. On the front line, the are like kindred spirits.”
Roberts put it more simply: “Having James Cameron’s presence on the show inspires and elevates everything the crew was aiming for, and a legend like him inspired everyone to push a bit harder.”
Out Of The Box Thinking
Like most companies working in unscripted, Talesmith has seen the market fall from an industry awash with cash for ambitious projects to one that requires skilful dealmaking and out-of-the-box thinking. Based on out of London, it has co-produced with Australia, Canadian and Indian companies and pushed heavily into immersive AR and VR content. “The market has changed dramatically in the last few years,” said Roberts. “It’s unrecognizable. We’re fully committed to being nimble and creative in our dealmaking.”
Williams stressed the need for producers to test the boundaries: “We are filmmakers at heart and love telling stories with an affinity for new technologies. Dealmaking is one thing, and it’s about those relationships, but we are not afraid to try new things. It’s about adapting, not just with tech, but audience trends of how people are consuming content. It’s about fitting that with our own expertise and going where the next trends are. There are a lot of unknowns out there, but we feel we’re in the right place and we know where it is going.”
Roberts said some confidence appears to be returning to the market, with commissioners slowly and cautiously considering more ideas. “There’s not a sudden surge but it is definitely much more optimistic than last year,” she added. “The conversations with networks are much more positive and can-do, whereas last year it was very much, ‘Keep pitching but there’s no money.’”
Next up for Talesmith is an historical series in paid development with an unnamed network, development on several features and limited series of “varying scales of budgets,” along with a continued push into immersive content. A flying theater project is coming up, while Williams and Roberts were speaking to us from L.A., where they were holding productive conversations about a West Coast project.
As for blue-chip natural history, Roberts said opportunities are “limited” and increasingly require new thinking to get off the ground. “For us, it’s more and more about crossing genres and different disciplines, and that’s the impression I get from streamers. Can you bring in adventure storytelling or sitcom tropes?
“Spinning back round to penguins, when we did the world first in Namibia on cave penguins, it took an extreme amount of planning. It was rope access-only, the team could only be there for a few hours, the kit had to be light and mobile, and we shot in 6K. If we’d spun the camera around, there would have been a great adventure documentary about how you make natural history.”
As for Nat Geo’s latest natural history take, Secrets of the Penguins will be followed by Underdogs, a series in which the unique and unpredictable behaviors of little-known animals are profiled, with Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, providing the narration. His company, Maximum Effort, is producing alongside Wildstar Films, and Han Vissering called it, “a completely new, entertaining take on natural history.” Ocean with David Attenborough, which we revealed last year as the first time Nat Geo had worked with the world’s most-famous natural history broadcaster, is a look at the state of the planet’s seas. Jaws at 50, meanwhile, will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic film, looking at the history of its making, its cultural impact and, specifically from a science standpoint, how it acted as mechanism for an explosion of interest in sharks, their behavior and their conservation.
“We really have some back-to-back heavy hitters,” said Han Vissering.
Two decades on from March of the Penguins, its spiritual successor certainly fits that bill. The large-scale production on Secrets of the Penguins points to the faith the Disney-owned factual network has placed in Talesmith, which used 14 different camera systems in shoots across nine locations to complete the filming. Kit was tested at temperatures of -58F (-15C), drones provided sweeping, cinematic footage in hard to reach places and underwater rigs were assembled to capture the penguins beneath the surface.
“We even bought our own snow mobile,” said Williams. “We left it with the Antarctic team. There’s not much use for it in Holborn.”
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