SpaceX series about origin of Elon Musk's company in development at HBO
The battle to launch the space exploration company is being turned into a series.
The origins of Elon Musk's ambitious space exploration project, SpaceX, are being retold as a six-part HBO series which will be executive produced by Magic Mike star Channing Tatum.
As well as Tatum, former HBO Films boss Len Amato is executive producer on the series that will be based on the book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
The Hollywood Reporter says SpaceX will follow Musk as attempts to fulfil his ambition of making humanity a truly "multi-planetary species".
The story will follow Musk as he chooses a team of engineers to try and launch the rocket from the tiny Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean. They failed three times, in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and resources and funds ran low but, eventually, they succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.
Soon after, the company's first manned operation, Falcon 9, launched and successfully docked at the International Space Station.
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Doug Jung (Star Trek Beyond, The Cloverfield Paradox) is adapting Vance's book and will executive produce with Tatum, Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan, Amato and Vance.
Musk is not involved in the project, but in July it was revealed that he and SpaceX were involved in a project with Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman that intended to become the first movie to be filmed in space.
The big budget production is estimated to be costing around $200 million (£153 million) but, considering no film has ever been made beyond Earth before, that may be an under-estimation.
Amato reportedly left HBO early in 2020, but clearly he's on good terms with his previous company. SpaceX is one of a number of big-hitting series in development at HBO, which has an exclusive first-look sales deal with Sky in the UK. Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac will star in an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, while The Big Short director Adam McKay is working on a Jeffrey Epstein project and an adaptation of 2020 Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite, along with the film's director, Bong Joon-ho.
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