Wars fought before the dawn of video are notoriously difficult to turn into documentaries. Battles can be reenacted onscreen, historical documents can be examined, and historians can be coached to tell a damn fine story, but if there’s no creative template—if it isn’t deftly made—people just aren’t going to be as interested without an AV component. Ken Burn’s The Civil War, the most-watched program to ever hit PBS, just recently re-hit DVD. Now 3net, the new 3D television network from Sony, Discovery, and IMAX, thinks they can top it with a Civil War documentary of their own.
The documentary, tentatively called The Civil War 3D, is set to shoot in 3D in a four-part series format. This sounds pretty ambitious, and not only because it will have to complete with the glut of other Civil War specials out there. It will also be one of the first projects to be created for televised 3D that isn’t some sort of live coverage, like sports.
The Hollywood Reporter, who contacted 3net CEO Tom Cosgrove, has explained the series will be created by using stereoscopic stills and reenactments shot on many of the actual battle sites to tell The Civil War 3D story. David Padrusch, who has shot several documentaries for the History Channel, including a 2006 documentary on the aftermath of the Civil War called Aftershock, will direct.
Honestly, I’m a sucker for any sort of war documentary, but I’m a little worried about this one. Tom Cosgrove’s explanation merely says, ‘Hey, except for the 3D component, there won’t be anything special about this documentary.’ It’s also worrying The Civil War 3D was just announced, doesn’t seem to be well thought-out, and yet is set to premiere this fall. Forget for a second that we all don’t have 3D television sets and just think about the limited effort the network is putting into this one. It might be fine for a first-go at programming of its ilk, but I doubt it can top Mr. Burns’ careful art.
