National Geographic has teamed up with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions to adapt Tom Wolfe’s best seller “The Right Stuff” into a scripted series by the same name, the network revealed at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Tuesday.

The series “takes a gritty anti-nostalgic look at what would become America’s first reality show as obsessive astronauts and their families become instant celebrities in a competition that will either kill them or make them immortal.”

The one-hour drama follows them from the Mojave Desert to the edges of space, with future seasons carrying through to the moon landing.

The series uses the book as a starting point, featuring a mission for each season, beginning at the height of the Cold War in 1958. A handful of adrenaline-junkie test pilots are living in the Mojave Desert, risking their lives daily to become the fastest pilots on earth. Meanwhile, America is against the ropes as the Soviets dominate the space race and the U.S. government conceives ‪the Mercury Program, America’s attempt to beat the Soviets and put the first person in space. Now they need to find the perfect team — seven heroes willing to risk almost certain death to achieve international fame and reclaim the ultimate high ground, outer space.

DiCaprio serves as executive producer along with Jennifer Davisson and Will Staples, who is also a writer. The series is in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television.

The Right Stuff is the second collaboration between National Geographic and Appian Way. The two teamed up last fall for the critically acclaimed climate-change documentary Before the Flood.

“With The Right Stuff, we’re looking at moment in time where the everyday life, the trials and tribulations, of these men was scrutinized in the public,” said Courteney Monroe, CEO, National Geographic Global Networks, in a statement. “The story gives a peek into the minds and goals of these astronauts seeking exploration and adventure during the space race of the ’50s, making it the perfect story for National Geographic to tell.”

Speaking of space, filming began this week in Budapest on the second season of National Geographic’s Mars. The six-part arc jumps ahead several years into the future after the Daedalus astronauts have built a full-fledged colony—Olympus Town. Having established humankind as an interplanetary species, Mars examines the impact that humans have on the red planet and the consequences the planet has on us.

Nat Geo also will mark the 20th anniversary of the film Titanic with a one-hour documentary global event on National Geographic, to premiere in December in 171 countries and 45 languages.

Titanic: 20th Anniversary will look back at all the critical choices made during the film and put them to the test against a wealth of new sources — including new underwater footage, computer-generated simulation and scholarly research. Cameron will take audiences through his personal journey in making the film, giving context to the choices he made during production based on the historical facts and science that was available at that time.

National Geographic will also look at the history of Princess Diana with the documentary film Diana: In Her Own Words, for a project premiering August 14 that is fully narrated in her voice using rarely heard recordings and weaving together archival footage and photography.

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