VANCOUVER — Thunderbird Entertainment’s factual division, Great Pacific Media, today announced the development of a limited drama series based on the life of Wernher Von Braun, a former Nazi scientist and the father of the American space program.
Titled Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, the series is based on the same-named biography written by Canadian author Michael J. Neufeld. Leading the creative is Simon Barry (Warrior Nun, Continuum, Bad Blood), who also serves as executive producer, writer and director through his production company Reality Distortion Field.
Thunderbird president Mark Miller will also serve as executive producer on behalf of Great Pacific Media. Thunderbird and Miller acquired the book’s intellectual property from the Smithsonian Institution in 2019. The story of Von Braun was selected to launch Thunderbird’s new initiative to develop dramatic scripted content based on real events through Great Pacific Media.
One of the most controversial people ever to join NASA, Von Braun shared a vision for space travel with the United States, which led to the decision to bring the German V-2 Rocket builder to work at NASA after World War II. The complex, often uncomfortable alliance culminated in Neil Armstrong successfully landing on the moon in 1969. “Without Von Braun and his team of engineers, America would have lost the space race to the Russians,” says Miller, in a press release. “This fascinating story is about whitewashing the history of men who played a major role in engineering the Nazi regime. At the centre, Von Braun and an American government were desperate to win the space race at all costs.”
The series will explore Von Braun’s childhood dreams of interplanetary travel and dramatize the choices he made to fund his rockets, his vision for World War II Germany, and later, the United States.
“After being Hitler’s greatest hope to destroy London, Von Braun became an American space pioneer who would win America’s National Media of Science, while avoiding the war crime courts of Nuremberg,” reads the press release.
“The story of Von Braun is set to be a breakthrough television event with global reach,” adds Miller. “He was a man caught between morality and progress — glorified as a visionary and vilified as a war criminal.”
