'An Inconvenient Truth' follow-up to premiere at Sundance

The announcement is timely, coming 11 years after Gore’s ground-breaking film premiered in Park City and one day after president-elect Donald Trump nominated climate skeptic Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk direct The Follow-Up To An Inconvenient Truth, which follows Gore around the globe as he continues his fight to build a more sustainable future for the planet.  

Richard Berge and Participant Media’s Diane Weyermann served as producers and Participant Media founder and CEO Jeff Skoll is executive producer alongside Davis Guggenheim (who directed An Inconvenient Truth), Lawrence Bender, Laurie David, Scott Z. Burns, and Lesley Chilcott.

An Inconvenient Truth opened through Paramount Vantage in 2006 and won Oscars for best documentary feature and best original song. Paramount will release the follow-up in 2017.

“Now more than ever we must rededicate ourselves to solving the climate crisis,” Gore said. “But we have reason to be hopeful: the solutions to the crisis are at hand.

“I’m deeply honoured and grateful that Paramount Pictures and Participant Media have once again taken on the task of bringing the critical story of the climate crisis to the world.”

Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey said, “We are honoured to be working again with Al, Jeff Skoll and everyone at Participant on a film whose message is as urgent as ever. Al’s tireless efforts to bring about change continues to inspire all of us as we fight for the health of our world for future generations.”

Skoll said, “A decade after we took a risk in backing a film centred around a slide show presentation and one human’s quest to awaken global consciousness about our changing planet, we are proud to bring global audiences a promising update: that a future powered by clean, safe, renewable, inexpensive, non-polluting energy is no longer a dream but a very attainable reality.”

Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper said, “This film and the 13 other films and projects that are part of The New Climate slate this year add a new chapter to our legacy of showcasing stories on the environment and climate change. When my team and I first watched this film, we were taken by its complete, sensitive and cinematic presentation of the issues. It was emotional to see the scope of our world’s problems – and heartening to see the potential for progress.”

Cohen and Shenk added, “It has been our honour to work with Participant on the follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth. Climate change is the story of our time and following Al Gore during this critical moment in history has been both sobering and incredibly inspiring. We couldn’t be more excited to have Paramount taking the film out to a wide audience around the world.”