One of the stars of Discovery’s Serengeti
You may have already seen and loved “The Lion King,” so you’ll want to get ready for an adjacent adventure in Africa in “Serengeti,” Discovery’s new six-part series premiering Sunday night.
Director and producer John Downer, a wildlife photographer with three decades of experience, teamed with Simon Fuller, known as the creator of the “Idol” series in the UK and the US for “Serengeti,” which is voiced by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o.
Both men appeared at the Television Critics Association summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton to discuss the project – and their unique partnership on it.
Filming went on for nearly two years in the northern Tanzania area of Africa, following the lives of families of baboons, cheetahs, elephants and of course– lions.
It is not a typical wildlife documentary they insist, but rather a narrative story.
“What you don’t know changes everything,” Downer said. “It was a very fluid script informed by the animals we were following. There were so many amazing moments that you couldn’t have predicted. It incorporates events that are life-changing for any animal. We like to think that animals are telling their own story. It’s totally fresh. We hope to get a bigger truth about them then a dramatized approach can take.”
Downer said that unexpectedly during the course of filming, leopards became a narrative driver, simply because they were leaping out of trees as they hunted their prey. The dramatic moments captured by the production’s cameras.
“The animal’s behavior Informed the storyline,” he said. “It’s enormously complicated. It’s not a documentary. We had three vehicles with up to six cameras on each vehicle. We wanted to get right in their world and used remote cameras triggered by the animals when we weren’t there. I’ve always wanted to get this immersive viewpoint combining wide angles with close-up views. It’s a style we created for this. The episodes give you a feel you can’t get through a documentary and shows you how complex and connected the world is and how it somehow comes together in an ecosystem that works without the influence of human beings.”
Fuller talked about how they were thrilled to have the episodes narrated by Nyong’o, who was born in Kenya and spent the first 16 years of her life there. “She has a magical quality to her voice and gives it heart and soul,” he said, and also noted his own passion for animals.
“Knowing the plight they’re under I wondered how I could create a show that allows viewers to have a different perspective with hopefully more respect and care – a spiritually higher integrity. As a mainstream entertainment maker, I wanted to have these characters tell their own stories,” Fuller said. “We crafted the stories after we had the footage and with the soundtrack, my objective is to create a connection with the viewpoint different than natural history programs. The music conjures up emotion and when you combine it with the wonderful voices, we’re hoping we can make a connection and even a new genre of entertainment.
(“Serengeti” premieres on Discovery at 8 p.m. ET/PT Sunday, August 4.)
