Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS
Feature Documentary on Sputnik Now in Production to Mark 50th Anniversary of Historical Event
By David Hoffman
posted Dec 4, 2006, 14:23
Veteran documentary
filmmaker, David Hoffman is in postproduction on Sputnik, a new feature
documentary that tells the story of the three Sputniks and their effect on
America and the world.
Veteran documentary
filmmaker, David Hoffman is in postproduction on Sputnik, a new feature
documentary that tells the story of the three Sputniks and their effect on
America and the world.
Sputnik will be completed at the end of March in preparation for the
50th anniversary year that begins October 4, 2007, and runs until December
31, 2008. During this time, there will be a variety of celebrations and
other events taking place around the world. Sputnik is being produced for
family audiences.
Just 12 hours after Sputnik was launched, NBC radio interrupted the
World Series and the announcer said "Listen now for the sound that forever
more separates the old from the new -- a chirping from outer space ---
beep-beep- beep."
"To our absolute shock, the Russians had beaten us into space," said
Hoffman. "A sense of panic spread as we realized that our cities could be
attacked with hydrogen bombs. Within a month, the Soviets launched a second
Sputnik and this one with a dog onboard. These events affected a generation
of folks who are now leaders in industry, science, and academia.
The competition to equal the Soviet successes provoked the space race
and a frightening escalation in hydrogen bomb development with increasingly
tests, including our largest tests ever in outer space. Sputnik also
prompted radical improvements in our education system and enormous advances
in science and technology including the dawn of GPS, photography from
space, weather satellites, cell phones, and the Internet, for starters.
It is a dramatic, fast-moving story of America with wonderfully
entertaining and sometimes frightening historical professional and amateur
sync sound film. Hoffman tells the story using often never-before-seen
historical films that he has been collecting for 25 years along with
comments by extraordinary witnesses including Susan Eisenhower, the
granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sergei Khrushchev, the son Nikita
Khrushchev.
Most of Hoffman's post production team are in their 20s. For them, the
story of Sputnik has surprising relevance to current events-President Bush,
the war in Iraq, the threat of global terrorism, the threats from global
warming, etc.
David Hoffman has made 4 feature documentaries, including, King Murray,
which took the Semaine de la Critique -- critics award at the Cannes Film
Festival. He has also produced 89 television documentaries including Making
Sense of the Sixties and the Peabody award winning, Moonshot, both with
longtime collaborator, Kirk Wolfinger. Hoffman is again teaming with
Wolfinger to bring Sputnik to the screen.
Hoffman also brought in Paul Dickson, bestselling author of Sputnik,
the Shock of the Century, as chief consultant, plus the respected
television journalist, Mark Shields as storyteller/narrator and influential
rock musician, Thomas Dolby, who will provide the musical soundtrack and
the film's title song.
Budgeted at $850,000 and backed by Jay Walker of Walker Digital (the
founder of Priceline.com), Pierre Schwob and The Museum of Flight in
Seattle, Sputnik is headed toward a rough cut. , Hoffman welcomes Sputnik
stories, old film and still photos.
"I plan to find the distributor that commits to Sputnik for family
audiences," says Hoffman.
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