National Geographic has boarded the French 4 part doc series “Rise and Fall of the Mayas” which tells the entire story of the great Mayan civilization, which inhabited areas that are now regions of Central America.
According to Deadline, Nat Geo takes worldwide rights to the Pernel Media four-parter outside the U.S., German- and French-speaking Europe and French-speaking Canada. ZDFinfo takes German-speaking Europe and TV5 Quebec takes French-speaking Canada. In France, it launches on RMC Decouverte on free TV before Histoire gets a second window for pay-TV. ZDF Studios has distribution rights in German-speaking Europe and Pernel sells it elsewhere.
The series features the expedition at Aguada Fenix, the oldest and largest Mayan site found to date. The ruins are located near the Mexico-Guatemala border and was first discovered in 2020. Archaeologists believe it is about 1,500 years older than other famous sites such as Tikal and Chichen Itza and suggests the first Mayan people could have lived 3,000 years ago. The civilization collapsed around 1500AD though around 8 million people of Mayan descent live in Central America.
Executive producers on the doc series are Pernel’s Céline Payot Lehmann and Samuel Kissous.
“Telling the story of a great civilization from beginning to end is a rare privilege that we managed by securing exclusives on ground breaking archaeological findings. That is what convinced our partners to come on board,” said Payot Lehmann.
Source: Deadline