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a14 people & arts
Friday 9 OctOber 2020
'The Right Stuff' looks back and up with first U.S. astronauts

By MARK KENNEDY tory come alive for years.
AP Entertainment Writer He previously examined
NEW YORK (AP) — When the computer revolution
Hollywood does biopics on in the '80 with "Halt and
musicians, we're used to Catch Fire" and worked
lots of saucy tales of sex, on "Manhattan," which
drugs and rock 'n' roll. Not told the story of the scien-
so much when it comes to tists who produced the first
astronauts. atomic bombs. He even
That changes with "The Real wrote about Wolfe in his
Stuff," an eight-part Na- master's thesis.
tional Geographic scripted "What we tried to do from
series that shows the of- the pilot forward is to take
ten ugly birth of American Wolfe's book, take the
space exploration. movie, take all the research
"Astronauts are treated like we did and triangulate it all
gods in our culture and and try to find the essence
they're unique in that way," of the truth in the middle,"
said writer, showrunner and he said.
producer Mark Lafferty. "It's The series airs at a time
kind of a third rail." when space exploration is
He and the show's creators again in the popular cul-
decided to grab the third ture. In May, Elon Musk's
rail and look behind the he- This image released by National Geographic shows Patrick J. Adams, center, in a scene from "The SpaceX launched astro-
roic veneer of the nation's Right Stuff." nauts into orbit from home
first clutch of astronauts Associated Press soil for the first time in nearly
to show their frailties and a decade. Jeff Bezos' Blue
fears. viets, taking viewers up to familiar territory in the clas- American hot dog pilot — Origin and Richard Bran-
Alan Shepard comes off as that crucial '61 launch. sic cars, smoking, knit shirts, Chuck Yeager. son's Virgin Galactic also
a cocky, serial womanizing "The Right Stuff" is a fiction- Frank Sinatra songs and When that fell through, they plan trips to space.
cad, while John Glenn is a alized dramatization based the strong whiff of white seized on seven instead — "I think we're just at a mo-
little too preoccupied with on actual events and male entitlement. Each of the Mercury Seven, who ment in time where we're
his place in history, and grounded in Tom Wolfe's the seven got new Cor- left military jobs to create kind of looking around and
Gordon Cooper's seem- best-seller of the same vettes for just $1 because the new category of astro- we're going, 'Are we satis-
ingly happy marriage is a name. the dealership knew what naut. The producers reread fied with where we are right
sham. Wolfe used literary tech- good advertising it would Wolfe's book and exam- now and who we are right
"They're not statues. They're niques to draw his char- be having them drive their ined the 1983 film adapta- now and what we've ac-
real flesh and blood men acters and sketch settings, cars. tion starring Ed Harris and complished? And, 'Can we
who did these unbeliev- finding in the astronauts "It was a great moment in Sam Shepard, which has a do more and can we do
able, unimaginable things. an inexpressible blend of time to be an astronaut, Cold War feel. better?' People are starting
But at their core, they're just confidence, skill and ma- right? You're a celebrity. "We went back and we to look out and up," Davis-
flesh and blood humans," chismo — "the right stuff." You were getting money. looked at the book, and son said.
said executive producer At one point Shepard says: You were getting girls. You we realized that as won- She added: "I hope we're
Jennifer Davisson. "Pilots are not modest. Not were getting cars for a dol- derful as the original movie right in the sweet spot of it."
The series, which premieres the good ones, anyway." lar. You were getting all this is, there's so much story There are plenty more sto-
on Disney+ on Friday, opens The series stars Patrick J. all these wonderful things. that's left untold. And so ries if "The Right Stuff" series
on May 5, 1961, the day Adams as Glenn, Jake Mc- But it's never enough," said we decided to roll up our develops an audience. The
Shepard became the sec- Dorman as Shepard, Colin Davisson. Davisson and sleeves and see if we could book and first season ends
ond person — and the first O'Donoghue as Gordon Leonardo DiCaprio, her we could turn it into some- with Shepard's launch, but
American — to fly in space. and Aaron Staton as Wally producing partner at their thing," Davisson said. there are a handful more
It then jumps back three Schiarra. Parts of it were Appian Way production Lafferty was in many ways Mercury missions, then
years to the birth of NASA filmed at real NASA loca- company, were originally the perfect man for the job plenty in Gemini and Apol-
and America's entry in the tions. exploring the idea of doing of shepherding the series lo, which ends with a man
space race against the So- Fans of "Mad Men" will find a project around a single since he's been making his- on the moon.q

'Jurassic World' shoot suspended after COVID-19 positives

By LINDSEY BAHR Filming on the new "Juras- wood Studios in the U.K. A spokesperson for Univer-
AP Film Writer sic World" movie at Pine- has been suspended for sal Pictures said they were Solution Sudoku
two weeks because of CO- informed of the positive
VID-19 cases on set. Direc- tests last night and that all
tor Colin Trevorrow tweet- tested negative this morn-
ed Wednesday that there ing.
were "a few" positive tests "The safety and well-being
for the virus. of our entire cast and crew
He added that the individ- is paramount," the spokes-
uals tested negative shortly person added. "Those who
after, but that they would initially tested positive are
be pausing for two weeks currently self-isolating, as
regardless to adhere to are those who they have
safety protocols. come into contact with."q Puzzle on Page 13