HBO Making Docuseries About Keiko, The Free Willy Whale

The captive male orca who appeared in hit film Free Willy is getting its own documentary.

HBO has greenlit a docuseries about Keiko, the whale from the 1993 film, from All3Media’s Raw Television, which is behind docs such as Don’t F*ck With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer and Three Identical Strangers.

Becky Read will direct the untitled docuseries; Read directed Apple doc ‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas and Sky History doc Kursk: 10 Days That Shaped Putinproduced Three Identical Strangers and exec produced Netflix’s The Greatest Night in Pop.

The series will tell the story of Keiko, who propelled into an extraordinary yet controversial journey that spanned across Mexico, the US, Iceland, and Norway. It will feature exclusive access to never-before-seen archives and interviews with those who worked closely with him.

Maria Drovnenkova produces and Dimitri Doganis and Tom Sheahan exec produce.

Keiko was originally captured near Reyðarfjörður, Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic Aquarium before being transferred to Marineland in Ontario, Canada, where he first started performing for the public. He was later sold to an amusement park in Mexico before starring in Free Willybeing released back into the ocean in 1998 before dying.

Theresa Demarest directed a documentary in 2010 – Keiko: The Untold Story – and The New York Times told the story last year The Good Whale podcast series from Serial Productions.

Read said, “I’m delighted to be partnering with HBO and Raw on this rich, complex story about our relationship to the natural world. I’m excited to bring some new voices to the screen to tell the story of Keiko’s life and chronicle a remarkable human endeavor by a group sometimes divided over the goal, but united by their good intentions.”