Fresh New TV and Film Projects Bring It Green

It seems like Hollywood's making a grab for green screens. Eco programming, that is. On the heels of Sundance Channel's mega-successful launch of green block shows, Discovery and Disney are coming up with their own shades of the hue.

Here's what's soon to hit the green screen scene:

Emeril Lagasse, the star of Planet Green's new eco cooking show. / Planet Green

Planet Green
Launching June 4th, this is arguably the biggest green splash on the tube — it replaces Discovery's Home channel and is the first to offer 24/7 eco fare.

Some of PG's lineup includes 14 personality-driven shows like Emeril Lagasse's eco-cooking show, a lifestyle program from Entourage star and eco warrior Adrian Grenier, Tom Brokaw specials and a weekly eco broadcast by Bob Woodruff.

The happiest news is the channel picked up Living with Ed, starring our eco hero Ed Begley, Jr. Sounds like the format stays the same as we watch Ed and wife Rachelle negotiate living green in a town where everyone lives large.

(l to r) Boise Thomas, Angela Lindvall, Adrian Grenier and Darren Moore have dinner during production of Planet Green's Alter Eco. Stephanie Diani/Planet Green

PG's also bringing Ed's pseudo nemesis Bill Nye (the Science Guy) to the tube with Stuff Happens. The show promises "scientist, engineer, comedian, author and inventor Nye unlocks the secret lives of everyday things before and after we consumer them." Sounds like CSI: Green?

Battleground Earth pits "Toxic" rocker Tommy Lee against rapper Ludacris "Luda Polluter" in a series of green challenges from solar-powered racing to bamboo home building.

The strangest offering is a Tom Green-hosted game show "with a green mission." We're hoping this doesn't include gross green body waste as prizes as is typically Tom's wont.

Lest audiences think they're going to get all green-hysterical on them, Discovery Networks CEO David Zaslav wants to set the record straight about his channel's offerings: "We're not going to be 'The ice is melting.' We want to engage people in a fun way and in the spirit of what we can all do together."

Co-hosts Daniel Sieberg and Suchin Pak on the set of Planet Green's G Word. Stephanie Diani/Getty Images

Disneynature
Although embattled French prexy Nicolas Sarkozy's marriage to ex-model-cum-recording-star Carla Bruni isn't winning him political favor these days, the right-winger did pledge complete global warming support when nominated over a year ago. "France will make this battle its first battle," he promised.

Big Cats/Courtesy of Disneynature

So it seems like Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures made a wise move by basing its new green film label in France. Disney vet Jean-Francois Camilleri, who also helped shepherd the Academy Award-winning March of the Penguins, heads up the new division, expected to develop and release eco docs in U.S. theaters.

A scene from Earth... People forget elephants can swim / Courtesy of Disneynature

"Nature invents the most beautiful stories," Camilleri said about this new venture. "By working with the best wildlife directors, we will offer nature as never seen before, help the audience to discover the incredible beauty of our world but also understand the challenges for the future generations."

Flamingoes from Disney's new film The Crimson Wing / Courtesy of Disneynature

On the Disneynature slate: Earth — release date April 22, 2009 (yup, Earth Day) — is narrated by vocal icon James Earl Jones and produced by Alastair Fothergill, who worked on BBC's Planet Earth and Discovery Channel's The Blue Planet. It promises a look at Earth like we've never before seen it.

Baby orangutans really are human looking...from Disney's film Orangutans / Courtesy of Disneynature

Also look for a non-John Waters film about flamingos (The Crimson Wing: The Mystery of the Flamingos), a journey with a six-year-old orangutan and his sister (Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight) and a doc about three mamas — a lioness, leopard and cheetah in Africa called Big Cats.

It's a whole new green world.

Green Thumbs Up to Sir Paul
Brown Thumbs Down to Lexus
This may be "old news" but it certainly bears repeating: Paul McCartney is p-o'd at Lexus. It seems he discovered his new Lexus LS500H, a gift from Lexus (who sponsored the rocker's 2005 tour), was flown 7,000 miles from Japan, completely offsetting any carbon benefits for driving a hybrid.

The 65-year-old environmentalist, who just (finally!) shed his problematic wife, Heather Mills, in a world-famous divorce, expected the hybrid to arrive by sea. Instead, UK's Daily Guardian reports it arrived on a Korean Air Flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea. Co2balance.com Director Mike Rigby said: "That is the equivalent of driving the car around the world six times." Smack!