Richard Branson, Subject Of New Docuseries, Says Pioneering Space Flight Didn’t Produce A “Thunderbolt” Moment: “I’ll Let You Know” If It Happens
deadline.comIt took a long, long time for Richard Branson to achieve his goal of blasting off into space, but it finally occurred last year after more than a billion dollars invested through his company Virgin Galactic. “Nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” he said upon landing.
But in a new interview with Deadline, he says the experience did not imbue him that a transcendent “overview effect,” the sense of awe about our place in universe or the perspective of a planet without natural political boundaries, unlike what other astronauts have reported feeling. “I don’t think there was like a lightning bolt moment in the space flight,” he tells Deadline. “It was extraordinary.
It was everything I’d dreamt it would be… But I’ll let you know when I get the thunderbolt.” The adventurer, entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin group of companies is the subject of the four-part documentary series Branson, which premieres with episode 1 on HBO tonight.
Fresh episodes will follow on successive Thursdays and the series will also stream on HBO Max. Doc veteran Chris Smith (Sr., Bad Vegan) directed the series, filming the key interviews with Branson at his island getaway in the British Virgin Islands just days before his long-awaited liftoff. “Every documentary filmmaker will have a list of subjects that they would be interested in covering,” Smith notes. “Knowing that this person lived on an island in the British Virgin Islands, I was curious like, how did you end up there?
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