Canada’s Great Pacific Media brings hit YouTube factual series What If to TV

What If will be the basis of If: Imagine the Impossible

Great Pacific Media in Canada has partnered with director, writer and producer Brad Peyton and physicist Michio Kaku on a series based on a popular YouTube channel.

If: Imagine the Impossible is based on digital-first media company Underknown’s social media sensation What If, which has had over 10 billion views on YouTube, making it the number-one science programme on social media, according to Tubular Labs.

Described as a futuristic drama-doc series, the show will bring hypothetical, alternative reality scenarios to life.

Previously, the YouTube channel has asked questions such as: what if you got swallowed by a whale? What if the Earth stopped spinning? And what if you could stop time?

Peyton joins If: Imagine the Impossible as director and executive producer, having previously helmed Dwayne Johnson blockbusters San Andreas and Rampage and Netflix series Daybreak. He is currently in production on Jennifer Lopez’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Atlas.

Kaku, meanwhile, is described as a world leader in the physics and the science of alternate realities. A co-founder of string field theory and a well-known populariser of science, Kaku will narrate the series and appear as an on-screen expert. Behind the camera, he will serve as the series’ lead science consultant.

“Every great discovery begins with a simple question: what if? This series brings to life seemingly impossible and exciting questions and explores our world in ways never imagined,” said Kaku.

Great Pacific Media’s current productions include Discovery Canada series Highway Thru Hell and its two spin-offs, Heavy Rescue: 401 and Mud Mountain Haulers, all of which also broadcast on The Weather Channel in the US.

Recently announced new series include Deadman’s Curse (History), Gut Job (HGTV), Dr Savannah: Wild Rose Vet (APTN Cottage Life) and Styled (working title, HGTV). It is part of Canada’s Thunderbird Entertainment Group.