Execs on NBC‘s The Americas were seeking “the American version of David Attenborough” when booking Tom Hanks for the upcoming epic wildlife series.

BBC Studios‘ Mike Gunton, a storied natural history exec who has worked on the likes of Planet Earth and Dynasties, said he had “written down who I wanted to do the music and who I wanted to be the narrator” when embarking on making the show nearly five years ago, and had scribbled “‘Tom Hanks?’.”

“That’s who I wanted,” he added at MIPTV. “He had such curiosity and his talent is so immense. He can turn his voice and delivery to every single nuance to the sorts of tone we see in all these stories.”

Toby Gorman, who runs Universal Television Alternative Studio, labeled the show “the most expensive unscripted project in NBCUniversal’s history.”

He said “we talked about who is the American version of David Attenborough” before settling on the double Oscar-winner.

“When we embarked on this we wanted to go as big as possible and after some conversations we said internally that there was a list of one,” he added. “We wanted Tom, it just felt right. What we didn’t know is whether he would want to do it.”

Hanks joins a growing line of Hollywood stars who have narrated big natural history shows, following in the footsteps of the likes of Paul Rudd and Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Americas employs revolutionary filmmaking technology that showcases the wonders, secrets and fragilities of the Americas – Earth’s largest landmass and the only one to stretch between both poles – and reveal untold wildlife stories that connect with millions around the world.

Attendees at MIPTV were treated to exclusive in-the-room footage including drone shots of bears and suction cameras attached to whales.

Producer Holly Spearing said the team “wanted to get to key habitats and find animals intrinsically linked to them.” She celebrated footage of the likes of seawolves and bison but said “some of the greatest joys came from some of the things we didn’t expect,” such as a hummingbird.

“Some of these places are so remote and you have to be there for a really long time,” she added.

“Low hanging fruit has been done”

The continent is “the one place on the planet that no one has ever done,” Gunton said.

“The low hanging fruit has been done and the difficult things have been left,” he added. “But that was our ambition. We have been able to deliver things in ways we have never seen before.”

The trio were speaking at MIPTV on Tuesday of the market. The Americas will launch this year.