Will Smith Becomes One with the Audience in "Welcome to Earth" on Disney+

The exquisitely shot series is from the executive producers who created the highly acclaimed docuseries One Strange Rock three years ago Protozoa Pictures39 Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel and Nutopia39s Jane Root and Peter Lovering In One Strange Rock Smith was a traditional host This time he explores exotic locales and stands in for the audience He asks what we would doamp160were we at the bottom of the sea or the top of a volcanoquotIt39s a ridiculous thing to say in some ways but he39s an everymanquot Lovering explained quotHe comes in like one of us would with a level of curiosity and passion but he isn39t an expert And being able to use him as a vehicle to get into this storytelling was a huge opportunity for us to showcase the amazing work of the explorersquotSmith is often hesitant he39s fearful in the water and has to be persuaded to rappel down a crevasse or hang from a rope over a gorge teeming with alligators no less His trepidation likely does not strike anyone with a healthy will to survive as unreasonable Yet how can you not go when such adventure beckonsquotMy grandmother used to say all the best things in life lived on the other side of fearquot Smith says on camera quotI sure hope Gigi was rightquotCuriosity gets the best of the movie star and he confronts his fears by traversing the extremes of the globe testing his grandmother39s theoryquotAfter the first show Will said 39Why am I talking about it Why am I not doing it39quot Handel recently told MediaVillageIn addition to exploring the farflung locales Smith is also producing this through his company Westbrook He hangs off cliffs and ropes a shark to painlessly tag it for tracking purposes the sort of antics stuntmen usually do for himThe series begins with The Silent Roar where Smith and blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer travel to Mount Yasur a volcano on Tanna Island Vanuatu in the South Pacific Fiery rocks spew forth and as they stand there it appears they39re the last two men on Earth before Hell consumes them With the guidance of a volcanologist they carefully head down using ropes as chunks of boiling lava explode upAs dangerous as this is the producers stressed that Disney has excellent risk management Plus had one of the world39s most popular movie stars died or been injured during this production you would have heard about it by nowIncidentally if the title of the sixpart series rings a bell it39s a line that Smith delivered after knocking out an alien in the 1996 film Independence Day Executive producer Root noted that it was simply too perfect not to useThe complicated shoot with 700 crew members covering over two million miles in 34 countries of course reveals the obvious parts of Earth oceans and glaciers The hidden parts prove even more captivating Sure you never expected to discuss over dinner how fascinating slime mold is when it moves yet it is and you will Similarly watching a desert chameleon39s telescopic tongue capture a beetle is cool though perhaps not for the beetle That happens so quickly in the episode Speed of Life that the human eye can39t perceive itExplorer technologist scientist amputee philosopher and storyteller Albert Lin is Smith39s guide in this episode The two enjoy a friendly competition Lin is one of those rare people who does not see obstacles only challenges he can work around given enough tech and duct tape Simply because we39re incapable of seeing the sands of the desert move does not alter the reality that they shift considerably as sped up cameras provequotWe are trying to show the invisible and the visiblequot Handel explained quotThe watchword of the show is wonder mixed with fearquotquotI wish I could be afraid with the same charismaquot added Matt Renner Vice President Production National Geographic PartnersRenner who also worked on One Strange Rock said a motivating factor for this series was quotHow can we share a story that can compel someone to get outside and immerse themselves into nature I felt we completed the task I never could have imagined a more diverse cast of explorers to help guide usquotIndeed this breaks the stereotype of only white older men translating Earth39s wonders There are women explorers Latinas a Black man an Asian man and explorers with physical disabilities When Smith is teamed with marine biologist and conservationist Cristina Mittermeier he marvels that she casually jumps in the water to photograph tiger sharks which are known to eat other sharksquotNothing reminds you of how small and fragile humans are than being in the water with a tiger sharkquot Mittermeier says on camera quotIt39s not for the faint of heartquotLike fellow marine biologist Diva Amon Mittermeier is thrilled to swim with the sharks For them it39s not just describing cutthroat operators at work swimming with sharks is their workAmon stresses how more people have been to space than to the bottom of the ocean which is where she and Smith go in a submersible he likens to the Death Star Some 3000 feet deep they watch one of the most spectacular shows on the planet as aquatic creatures light up with bioluminescence in the utter darkness of the deep sea Smith forgets his fears as he watches mesmerizedWhile some of this is naturally scripted the best moments are spontaneous Since 99 percent of the ocean floor remains uncharted no one knew they would encounter a giant cliff in the Bahamas at the bottom of the sea Employing the explorers39 rule of naming a discovery Smith instantly dubs it quotThe Fresh PeakquotquotWe threw Smith in a volcano dropped him onto a glacier plunged him 3000 feet below the seaquot said Alan Eyres Senior Vice President Production and Development National Geographic Unscripted Series quotAnd I never saw him more miserable than when he was having a COVID testquotAs involved as crafting a series of this scope was making a third of it during the pandemic forced new levels of innovationquotWe found literally the most isolated glacier in Icelandquot Eyres says of the spot where Smith and Arctic adventurer Dwayne Fields exploreEven after making television for over 20 years Eyres said quotI cannot believe we were allowed to make this You look at it and think no one has ever done this before on TV Looking at the world through Will Smith39s eyes is transformative He is such a sponge for awe and wonder and whatever you feel he magnifies itquotWelcome to Earth premieres December 8 on DisneyClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Will Smith Becomes One with the Audience in "Welcome to Earth" on Disney+

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