EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic joined the French history document The Rise and Fall of the Maya.
The Disney-owned de facto network is one of three new pre-buyers of the series, originally commissioned by RMC Decouverte in France and pre-purchased domestically by Histoire TV.
Nat Geo is taking over the US rights to the four-part series from Pernel Media, ZDFinfo is taking over German-speaking Europe and TV5 Quebec is taking over French-speaking Canada. In France, it will launch on RMC Decouverte on free TV, before Histoire gets a second window on pay TV.
ZDF Studios has distribution rights in German-speaking Europe and Pernel sells them elsewhere.
The Rise and Fall of the Maya (Les Mayas, Des Origines a la Chute) tells the full story of the great Mayan civilization that inhabited what are now regions of Central America.
Notable is the doctor’s entry into a pioneering expedition at Aguada Fenix, the oldest and largest Mayan site yet found. Archaeologists discovered the ruins near the Mexico-Guatemalan border in 2020 using LIDAR technology. It is thought to predate other famous sites such as Tikal and Chichen Itza by about 1,500 years, suggesting that the first Maya may have lived 3,000 years ago. The civilization collapsed around 1500 AD, although about 8 million people of Maya descent live in Central America.
The documentary series is produced by Pernel’s Celine Payot Lehmann and Samuel Kissous.
“To tell the story of a great civilization from beginning to end is a rare privilege granted by exclusive access to ground-breaking archaeological finds. This convinced our partners to come on board,” says Payot Lehmann.
On Friday, Arte France commissioned Pernel to produce a document on Jewish ghettos in World War II.
Source: Deadline
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