Arlington, VA; October 25, 2007 - PBS today announced that it will air CARRIER, a revealing story of daily life on a United States aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz. Filmed from May to November 2005, nearly 2,000 hours of high-definition video were captured aboard the ship during a full six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf, of which three months were spent in combat in support of the ground troops. For the first time, a television series takes a raw and honest look at the Navy's role in this controversial war. CARRIER premieres Sunday, April 27-Thursday, May 1, 2008, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS.
"PBS viewers will get a gripping view of the deployment and operations aboard a carrier during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and emotional accounts of life in the floating city," said John F. Wilson, senior vice president and chief TV programming executive. "The universal themes that emerge offer compelling insight into the men and women who commit to military service against the extraordinary backdrop of war."
The USS Nimitz, 24 stories high and three football fields long, carries 5,300 navy personnel and 85 military aircraft. CARRIER follows a core group of film participants, from the admiral of the strike group to the fighter pilots to the youngest sailors, as they navigate personal conflicts around their jobs, families, faith, patriotism, love, the rites of passage and the war on terror.
"CARRIER is a character-driven, edge-of-your-seat, nonfiction drama and a once-in-a-lifetime total immersion in the high stakes world of the nuclear aircraft carrier," said executive producer and director Maro Chermayeff.
CARRIER is a production of Icon Productions, LLC, and Carrier Project, Inc. Executive producers are Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Nancy Cotton, Mitchell Block and Maro Chermayeff.
Funding for the series is provided by the CPB/PBS Challenge Fund. The presenting station is WETA Washington, DC.
About PBS
PBS is a media enterprise that serves 355 public noncommercial television stations and reaches nearly 73 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is a leading provider of digital learning content for pre-K-12 educators and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS' premier kids' TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online (www.pbskids.org), continue to be parents' and teachers' most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.
About Icon Productions
Icon Productions, LLC, is an independent motion picture production company founded in August 1989 by Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey. Unlike most other independent production companies, Icon internally funds most of its development and production costs, allowing it to retain creative control of its projects. Icon also has an international sales division and distribution companies in the United Kingdom and in Australia/New Zealand. Icon Productions films include Hamlet, Forever Young, The Man Without a Face, Airborne, Maverick, Immortal Beloved, the Academy Award-winning Braveheart, On Our Selection, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, 187, FairyTale: A True Story, Payback, An Ideal Husband, Felicia's Journey, What Women Want, We Were Soldiers, The Singing Detective, Paparazzi, The Passion of the Christ, Seraphim Falls and Apocalypto.
-PBS-
CONTACT:
Carrie Johnson,PBS,703/739-5019 cjohnson@pbs.org
Anthony Bucker or Abby Kadell, Icon Entertainment International, +44 208 492 6300
www.PBS.ORG/PRESSROOM