EXCLUSIVE

〉 Sagan wrote Contact, which was adapted by Warner Brothers in 1997

Legendary astrophysicist Carl Sagan will be remembered in the upcoming biographical drama SAGAN from Warner Bros. Courtenay Valenti and Cate Adams will produce for Warner, while Lynda Obst and Rachel Abarbanell will oversee for their shingle, Lynda Obst Productions. Ann Druyan, Sagan’s widow, will also serve as a producer on the film. Deadfall scribe Zach Dean is scripting.

The beloved scientist and author is perhaps best known as the host of the award-winning 1980’s television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, a show which many credit as having introduced the exploration of the universe into popular culture. A favorite guest of Johnny Carson’s, Sagan was known as a strong advocate of SETI–the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence–and spent much of his career researching the possibility of life on other planets.

Sagan also wrote the novel Contact, which was adapted for the big screen in 1997 by Robert Zemeckis. That film, which starred Jodie Foster and Matthew McCoughnehey, was also co-produced by Sagan, Druyan and Obst for Warner. Contact was well-received by both critics and audiences, earning Foster a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

The Sagan biopic has an impressive team of producers behind it, starting with Valenti, who was involved with this summer’s endlessly kinetic Mad Max: Fury Road. Obst, meanwhile, helped lead Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar to galactic-sized numbers at the box office last year. Perhaps the most important element, however, is Druyan, whose involvement is bound to give the film the credibility it needs to stand up to the scrutiny of skeptical Sagan loyalists.

—TO SEE ALL THE PROJECT DETAILS CLICK HERE—

Josh Lyons | Staff Writer