Scott Z. Burns takes on projects that will make a statement.
His latest TV series, “Extrapolations,” takes on the topic of climate change while weaving together eight compelling stories.
“We started with a time line of the science and what could happen,” Burns says. “Then it became an issue of discovering connective tissues, both across the stories, but also figuring what characters we could deploy across the series.”
The series introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives.
Eight interwoven stories about love, work, faith and family from across the globe will explore the intimate, life-altering choices that must be made when the planet is changing faster than the population.
Each story is different, but the fight for our future is universal. And when the fate of humanity is up against a ticking clock, the battle between courage and complacency has never been more urgent.
The series premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, March 17. It has a cast that includes Kit Harington, Sienna Miller, Meryl Streep, Eiza Gonzalez, Tobey Maguire, Marion Cotillard, Gemma Chan, Edward Norton and Daveed Diggs.
Burns is the creator, writer, director and executive producer for the series. He worked alongside fellow executive producers Dorothy Fortenberry and Michael Ellenberg.
Fortenberry has spent many years writing and researching climate change. She was asked by Burns to join the project and it was an easy decision.
“I have been concerned about climate change and thinking about climate change pretty much my while life,” Fortenberry says. “I felt so incredibly grateful when I met Scott and heard about the show that he was doing. I was like, ‘Oh, wait, that’s the show I want to do.’ It really gives examples of how are we going to live in the upcoming decades. I feel like it was Christmas morning when I found out someone was making it and I was getting the chance to join.”
Sienna Miller in a scene from “Extrapolations.” (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
Ellenberg joined the project because he says climate change is a defining subject of our era and of our lives.
“There’s been so little film and television exploring it,” Ellenberg says of climate change. “Scott and I spoke a lot about why that is. And I think it’s somewhat of the nature of our industry, but it’s also nature of the subject. And it tends to get reduced to will we win or lose, and becomes very binary. In a way it doesn’t really. I think it’s been hard to ask and explore the really interesting questions about it. And so it was so exciting about the vision created. (This) is a look at a possible future.”
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