National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) announced today at Comic-Con the global launch of COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY, the new series from executive producer/writer Ann Druyan and executive producer Seth MacFarlane. Internationally, the series will premiere exclusively on National Geographic Channel in 170 countries and 48 languages early next year. NGCI will align its international premiere with the series launch on FOX and National Geographic Channel in the United States next spring.

MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad) has teamed with Carl Sagan’s original creative collaborators –executive producer/writer Druyan and co-writer and astronomer Steven Soter – to conceive a 13-part series, combining drama, fantasy and stunning natural reality, that will serve as a successor to the legendary Emmy® Award- and Peabody Award-winning original series.

Hosted by world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the series aspires to awaken a global audience to the wonders of the universe, as revealed by the awesome power of the scientific perspective. Executive producer Brannon Braga serves as the primary director of the series, with cinematographer Bill Pope also directing. The new COSMOS will feature animated sequences with guest voices from MacFarlane and an array of talent to be announced.

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY will invent new modes of scientific storytelling to reveal the grandeur of the universe and re-invent celebrated elements of the original series, including the Cosmic Calendar and the Ship of the Imagination. Uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with visual, emotional and spiritual elements, it will be a transcendent experience – a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale we know.

“There’s never been a more important time for COSMOS to re-emerge than right now. I want to make this so entertaining, and so flashy, and so exciting that people who have no interest in science will watch just because it’s a spectacle,” said MacFarlane.

“It’s a thrill to take the Ship of the Imagination out for another spin,” added Druyan. “We are going places none of us have ever been before, using capabilities that just didn’t exist back when we were making the original series. All that, and yet it feels so much like the first time.”

“For 125 years, National Geographic has been at the very forefront of scientific research, investigation and adventure. COSMOS represents a stunning, epic and transformational journey into a new age of exploration, espousing the core values that are an inherent part of the National Geographic Channel,” said Ward Platt, CEO of National Geographic Channels International and COO of Fox International Channels. “We are thrilled to work with Cosmos Studios and FOX on the rebirth of one of the most powerful and revolutionizing science series of all time.”

“Working with our partners at FOX and NGCI, COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY is truly going to be a global television event unlike anything we have done before,” added David Lyle, CEO National Geographic Channel U.S. and Global Programming. “With Seth’s passion, Ann’s creative force, and Neil’s tremendous appeal, the new COSMOS is going to mark a turning point in nonfiction television, just as the original did over 30 years ago.”

One of the world’s most beloved science series, the original “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” was a watershed moment in nonfiction television, changing the way audiences were able to look beyond our own world when it premiered in 1980. For 33 years, the series has remained in ongoing worldwide distribution, seen by more than 750 million people in more than 175 countries. In the United States, the series was the most highly rated public television series at its time of broadcast, and held that record for a decade. It was also the recipient of three primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.

The series is produced by Cosmos Studios, the Ithaca, NY-based company Ann Druyan co-founded in 2000, and Fuzzy Door Productions, Mr. MacFarlane's company. Druyan and Steven Soter are the series’ writers. Druyan, MacFarlane, Cosmos Studios President Mitchell Cannold and Brannon Braga (“Star Trek” franchise, “24”) will executive-produce the series. Jason Clark (“Ted,” “42,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West”) produces.

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