'Genius' Season 2 to Feature the 'Tremendously Fascinating and Inspiring' Life of Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso's life is front and center in the second season of National Geographic's anthology series, "Genius." The next 10-part run is due out next year.
No actor has been cast for the role yet, but like in the first season, Picasso's life will also be told in a non-linear structure, alternating between the old and young, and it will thus need two actors to give life to the Spanish artist's earlier and later life.
In a press conference all to various media outlets last Wednesday, June 21, executive producers Ron Howard and Ken Biller revealed that Picasso was their first choice for the second season all along. Aside from the artist's life being interesting, controversial, and inspiring, featuring him will also serve as "the proof of concept" for the series by making the declarative statement, "'Genius' is not only about scientists."
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"When you think about who are the iconic figures in history who have really changed the way we see the world, who were striving for goals that other people hadn't even thought to set, Pablo Picasso immediately came to mind," Biller said.
Howard added that despite Picasso's fame and success, not a lot of people really knew much about his "tremendously fascinating and inspiring" life. "Genius" will aim to bring Picasso's struggles and victories to light and show the challenges and experiences that eventually inspired and drove him to artistic greatness. It will be featured in the same manner as to how the patent clerk Albert Einstein rose above the turbulences in his life to become one of the most groundbreaking physicists in history.
"I think it's that combination that made him feel like a great choice for our season 2," Howard said.
Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881, and he is considered to be one of the greatest, most influential artists of the 20th century. As a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, Picasso led a long prolific career until his death in Mougins, France in 1973. Together with George Braque, Picasso has been credited for the creation of the art movement known as Cubism.
Filming for "Genius" season 2 is scheduled to begin later in the summer. It is slated for a 2018 premiere on the National Geographic Channel.
