News

Cassel builds Castle

October 7, 2011. New York – Christopher Cassel, showrunner, director and writer for Manhattan production company KPI for thirteen years, has launched his own New York-based prodco, Castle Pictures, Inc., as President and Creative Director.

Cassel has spent the past decade circling the globe to bring the world's greatest characters and wonders to life on History, Discovery, Science, Animal Planet, A&E, TLC and Bravo. Most recently, Chris worked as supervising producer and writer, with executive producer Steven Spielberg, on Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero, a six-hour mini-series event that premiered on Discovery and Science.

In 2006, Cassel's History special Rome: Engineering an Empire won two Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Nonfiction Special. His credits include marquee series and specials The Dark Ages, The White House: Behind Closed Doors and Clash of the Gods for History, The Uprising for Animal Planet, and Apocalypse How? for Discovery. His projects have earned six Emmy nominations, a BANFF nomination and two Tellys.

Under his new banner, Cassel is pursuing a slate of epic, immersive and transformational stories borne out of exploration, travel, history, the natural world, engineering, sports and every day American life. He is developing Upon This Rock, a scripted serial drama set in Renaissance Rome that follows the larger-than-life true characters behind the building of St. Peter's Basilica; Built Planet, a sweeping documentary series that traces human history through the evolution of architecture and engineering; and Lazarus, a fiction screenplay inspired by his two years filming at Ground Zero for Rising, which follows a traumatized 9/11 survivor in the first year after the attacks.