Move over, Mt. McKinley! Move over very slowly via the gradual machinations of plate tectonics, because Mt. Everest is officially the new “it” mountain. After splashing onto the scene in the late Paleocene Epoch, Everest retreated from the spotlight, citing its desire to “spend more time with its family” and “be a quite tall mountain.” But now the massive conglomeration of siltstone, limestone, and other highly glamorous stones is diving into a new chapter of its career—a chapter in which attractive men pretend to climb it while other people point cameras at the men who are pretending.
In recent months, the mountain has struck up partnerships with noted attractive men Tom Hardy and Christian Bale, and now Everest has agreed to star in a 10-episode miniseries called Everest that will air on Fox. The deal carries the potential for further installments if viewers take a shine to the show’s craggy hero. The concept has been in the works for a while: Deadline reports that the “pitch for Everest…was the result of a four- to five-month development process,” which may seem like a long time to arrive at the concept of “people climb Everest,” but five months is a pretty short time for a mountain, so give Everest a break already.
This latest report brings concerns that Everest might be headed for the kind of overexposure that curtailed K2’s mountain-show-business career in the 1990s. But industry insiders argue that K2 acquired a reputation of being difficult to work with—the so-called “Shelley Long Of Mountains”—and the relatively agreeable Everest won’t suffer the same backlash. Also, Everest was here long before any of us were born, and it will be here long after we all die, so it has that as a fallback.