PBS has picked up the distribution rights to a feature-length documentary about Bill Nye, appropriately titled Bill Nye: Science Guy, which will be headed to theaters later this year, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Nye’s beloved PBS show that taught 90s kids important life lessons like “inertia is the property of matter” may have gone off the air in 1998, but the series has stuck around the public consciousness primarily because it is a good thing for middle school science teachers to put on when they’re too hungover to lecture. Yet, in the two decades since his show’s cancellation, Nye has been steadily working to leave behind his persona as the bow-tied TV star who turns songs about meth addiction into science parodies, and become the bow-tied advocate for rational scientific thinking.
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Bill Nye: Science Guy, which premiered at SXSW to rave reviews last March, is an intimate look at Nye as he tries to shed his children’s show personality and fight for scientific education in a world where the US president thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax. The documentary traces Nye’s whole career from his difficult childhood, to his days a college student studying mechanical engineering, to his PBS fame and beyond.
It’s directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg (the duo who Hollywood Reporter points out also made that anti-aging doc The Immortalists) and will screen at AFI Films and the LA Film Festival before opening nationwide in theaters. PBS also announced plans to air the film on TV next year as part of their POV series, after it completes its theatrical run.
“Many of us grew up with Bill Nye the Science Guy,” POV director and executive producer Justine Nagan said, according to Deadline. “He loved science, and he inspired a whole generation of kids to share that passion through his PBS show. Now, as champion for climate science, this film will spark dialogue across ideological lines.”
