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Nat Geo Channel and Scott Free to collaborate on Bill O’Reilly’s 'Killing Kennedy'

By April MacIntyre Jan 3, 2013, 19:48 GMT

National Geographic Channel announced today that with the success of their first feature film SEAL Team Six and in anticipation of the upcoming world premiere of Killing Lincoln in February 2013, they will once again collaborate with Scott Free Productions to produce a two-hour film based on “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” Bill O’Reilly’s latest New York Times best-selling book with co-author Martin Dugard.

National Geographic Channel announced today that with the success of their first feature film SEAL Team Six and in anticipation of the upcoming world premiere of Killing Lincoln in February 2013, they will once again collaborate with Scott Free Productions to produce a two-hour film based on “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” Bill O’Reilly’s latest New York Times best-selling book with co-author Martin Dugard.
 
From NGC

The two-hour factual drama will stay true to the narrative storytelling devices used by O’Reilly in the book, which recounts the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy — and how a sequence of gunshots in Dallas not only killed a beloved president, but also propelled the nation into the Vietnam War and a cultural change. 
 
“The common parallels between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy are astonishing, with both assassinations profoundly changing the nation during crucial moments in its history.  It made perfect sense that my follow-up to Lincoln would naturally lead to Kennedy,” said author Bill O’Reilly. 

“While Kennedy’s assassination continues to garner many conspiracy theories, our story is based on facts, some that haven’t been publicly known.  And with National Geographic Channel and Scott Free once again at the helm, I have the utmost trust and faith that they will bring the story of Kennedy and Camelot to life.”
 
Production on the two-hour television event will begin this spring, combining rare historical insights and archives with dramatic and emotionally engaging storytelling in the signature style of the Scott brothers.  Casting news will be announced shortly. 
 
The special will premiere globally on the National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and 38 languages.
 
“Collaborating with National Geographic on Bill O’Reilly’s follow-up was an easy decision.  They share the same passion of storytelling, willing to take creative leaps and risks to keep viewers entertained to tell the provocative story of Kennedy’s last days, a pivotal and historic moment,” said Ridley Scott.
 
“With the tremendous success of SEAL Team Six, our first feature film, and the growing excitement over this February’s premiere of Killing Lincoln, producing Bill O’Reilly’s follow-up was a no-brainer and will be yet another story that will resonate with our audience,” said Owens.  “As Scott Free Productions continue to be perfect partners — taking risks and breaking new ground in storytelling — we are claiming a stake in producing factual dramas, delivering entertainment with substance.”

More than a million readers have thrilled to Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln, the page-turning work of nonfiction about the shocking assassination that changed the course of American history. Now the anchor of The O’Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy—and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.
 
In January 1961, as the Cold War escalates, John F. Kennedy struggles to contain the growth of Communism while he learns the hardships, solitude, and temptations of what it means to be president of the United States. Along the way he acquires a number of formidable enemies, among them Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Alan Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  In addition, powerful elements of organized crime have begun to talk about targeting the president and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
 
In the midst of a 1963 campaign trip to Texas, Kennedy is gunned down by an erratic young drifter named Lee Harvey Oswald. The former Marine Corps sharpshooter escapes the scene, only to be caught and shot dead while in police custody.
 
The events leading up to the most notorious crime of the twentieth century are almost as shocking as the assassination itself. Killing Kennedy chronicles both the heroism and deceit of Camelot, bringing history to life in ways that will profoundly move the reader.  This may well be the most talked about book of the year.
 
O’Reilly is the anchor of “The O’Reilly Factor,” the highest-rated cable news show in the country.