LOS ANGELES: Hollywood star Steve Carell, who is reuniting with "The Office" producer Greg Daniels, says they decided to do the new Netflix show "Space Force" because they loved the title.
In the upcoming comedy, Carell plays the role of a decorated pilot, general Mark R Naird, who dreams of running the Air Force but is instead handed over the responsibility to lead the newly formed sixth branch of the US Armed Forces: 'Space Force'.
Mark uproots his family and moves to a remote base in Colorado to work on getting American boots again on the moon.
"'Space Force' came around in a rather atypical way. Netflix had this premise that they thought might make a funny show - the idea made everybody laugh in a meeting, an idea of a show about the origins of a fictitious Space Force.
I heard about the idea through my agent, and Netflix pitched the show to me, and then I pitched the show to Greg, and we all had the same reaction to it," Carell said in a statement.
"There was no show, there was no idea aside from the title. Netflix asked, 'Do you want to do a show called Space Force?' And I pretty much immediately said, 'Well yeah, sure. That sounds great.' And then I called Greg, and I said, 'Hey, you want to do a show called Space Force?' And he said, 'Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do it.' And it was really based on nothing, except this name that made everybody laugh.
So we were off and running," Carell, who has co-created the show with Daniels, added.
Daniels said they realised they had something to say about the notion of making space more military through a story that echoed some of America's best moments.
"It had a lot of heroism and yet it also had a strong satirical element. Suddenly everybody has realised that there are riches to be had on the moon, and we've got to stake our claim.
It feels like there's now a scramble to colonize space.
The contrast between that and the super hopeful early days of NASA, when it was just such an achievement for all of mankind to get a person on the moon, is a good subject for satire," he said.
The show also features John Malkovich, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Lisa Kudrow, Jimmy O.Yang, Noah Emmerich, Alex Sparrow and Don Lake.
The new comedy series premieres globally on May 29 on Netflix.