EXCLUSIVE: We got your first look at bransonHBO’s forthcoming four-part documentary series about high-flying tycoon Richard Branson, who built an empire around the Virgin brand.
Award-winning filmmaker Chris Smith directed the series, which premieres Thursday, December 1 on HBO, with new episodes debuting on each of the following three Thursdays. The series is also available to stream on HBO Max.
“Smith…takes us on an expansive and intimate 70-year journey, from Branson’s upbringing in Britain to a spirited, hard-hearted mother, to his pursuit of extreme personal bravado that has fueled both the growth of his company’s brands and the growth serves to quench his unquenchable, lifelong thirst for high-stakes adventure,” HBO said in a statement. “branson charts the highs and lows of a man driven by risk-taking in both his business and personal life, and reflects on the costs and rewards of his lifelong unrelenting optimism and pushing boundaries.
The key interview for the series took place 16 days before Branson took off on a suborbital flight aboard a Virgin Galactic rocket, making him “the first passenger to reach space in his own spacecraft.” Branson beat Jeff Bezos, who reached the frontier of space nine days after Branson’s mission on a Blue Origin rocket (Bezos’ rocket carried him to a slightly higher altitude than Branson reached).
Branson’s stunning business accomplishments are explored in the series, as is his upbringing in a family that encouraged risk-taking.
“He thrives on danger. It’s a continuation of his childhood,” Branson’s wife Joan notes in the trailer. Branson himself says: “Because I had dyslexia and left school at 15, I had a lot to prove.”
It didn’t take him long to prove himself. He became “a millionaire at the age of 22 with the booming success of Virgin Records,” HBO commented. “His launch of Virgin Atlantic airline soon followed, along with a host of other Virgin-branded companies with varying degrees of success, culminating in the formation of Virgin Galactic, his commercial space company, in 2004.”
Smith has become one of the most successful directors in documentary film and has an Oscar contender this year sirhis film about actor-director Robert Downey Sr. and his relationship with his son Robert Downey Jr. Smith released the Netflix documentary series earlier this year Bad vegan, about a New York City restaurant owner whose business collapsed after becoming involved with a mysterious man who claimed he could bestow immortality on her dog. Additional credits include the 2021 HBO documentary series 100 foot wave, about big wave surfer Garrett McNamara; 2018 Fire, about the Caribbean music event that turned into a fiasco; 2017yim & Andy: The Great Afterlifeabout Jim Carrey’s career as comedian Andy Kaufman and the classic 1999 documentary American movie.
To the bransonIn addition to speaking to the mogul, Smith spoke to those closest to him: “…[T]The series features his colleagues and collaborators, as well as insights from business journalists and industry experts,” HBO said. “Also included are intimate interviews with his family, including revealing excerpts from conversations with Joan, his wife of 33, his sisters, his daughter Holly and his son Sam, as well as an extensive personal archive of his late mother Eve, whose lively presence at Branson’s das Life continues to matter.”
The film is directed by Smith and executive produced by Kate Noble. HBO executive producers are Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller, and executive producer is Tina Nguyen.
Check out the trailer above.