Buoyed by recent Canadian space missions and the popularity of series such as Cosmos stateside, space is enjoying something of a renaissance in the collective imagination. And Canada’s Discovery channel is looking to tap into that with a new original documentary, Mankind From Space. 

The Canada/U.K. copro, which will also air on PBS in the U.S., builds off the success of the similarly themed 2012 doc Earth From Space. Both are produced by Montreal’s Handel Productions and the U.K.’s Darlow Smithson Productions.

Like Earth from Space, Mankind From Space is CGI-intensive, exploring the communications and technology networks humans have created on earth over the past 12,000 years. Using raw data from NASA satellites, the producers dedicated a large amount of time to researching the information gathered in order to convert to useable CGI. This, suffice to say, required a bigger budget than your average documentary. 

Enter the coproduction structure.

“Just writing the script and understanding all of that takes a while so these productions are quite expensive and we couldn’t just finance it out of Canada. It was the same for Darlow, they couldn’t just finance it out of the U.K.,” Handel producer Andre Barro told Playback Daily.

For Bruce Glawson, Discovery’s executive producer for Mankind From Space, the decision to commission the documentary came down to three reasons. He says the innovative nature of the documentary, audience attraction to shows with bold solutions to global challenges and viewers’ typically strong response to original programming made the decision easy.

“We know our viewers really well. They’re fascinated [and] curious about the world in which they live and they want to be entertained and informed about things that are relevant to their lives,” he said.

In addition to support from Discovery Canada, Canal D and PBS, Mankind From Space was financed by the Canada Media Fund and Quebec tax credits. It also received a distribution advance from Netherlands-based Endemol. Production for the French-language version of Mankind From Space, by Handel and Darlow Smithson for Canal D, is currently underway. The series is currently being shopped internationally.

“Earth From Space was really well sold all around the planet so we’re hoping to have the same level of success with this one,” he said.

Discovery’s promotion for Mankind From Space will include a large social media campaign, running teasers on Discovery.ca and on-air promotion in the weeks leading up to the May 3 premiere.