Simon Kinberg, co-creator and showrunner of Apple TV+’s alien drama, sought experts on extraterrestrial life for his sci-fi drama series: “Some facts come out that are as strange as your fiction.”
By Mia Galluppo, June 20, 2022 1:30pm
“I’m somebody who went to college and didn’t take a single science or math class when I was there,” explains Simon Kinberg. “Unlike someone like a James Cameron, for whom that is their vocation, science is not something that comes naturally to me.”
In other words, he surmises, “I need Astrophysics for Dummies.”A lifelong fan of sci-fi, from Isaac Asimov to Aliens, the prolific writer-producer has put his stamp on the genre with entries like The Martian and his latest, Apple TV+’s drama Invasion.
The series, co-created with David Weil, tells the story of an alien invasion through the eyes of five ordinary people. When creating his science fiction, Kinberg wants it to feel as grounded as possible, so he sought out experts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as the SETI Institute, a research organization devoted to investigating life beyond Earth. (In a testament to this commitment to realism, The Martian had some audiences believing it was based on a true story to such a degree that the filmmakers had to release a statement to the effect of “No, we haven’t actually sent a mission of human beings to Mars yet,” remembers Kinberg.)
Source: How ‘Invasion’ Showrunner Created Fact-Based Science-Fiction – The Hollywood Reporter