Walking with Dinosaurs Information

Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie is an upcoming dinosaur film produced by BBC Earth and based on the 1999 BBC miniseries of the same name. The film features computer-animated dinosaurs in live-action settings. The film is directed by Neil Nightingale and Pierre de Lespinois. Walking with Dinosaurs is scheduled to be released in theaters in 2D and 3D on , 2013.

Premise

Variety reported in June 2010, "The project... will combine factual content about the prehistoric age with a story about the relentless struggle to survive." By January 2013, Variety said, "Pic follows two brothers looking to follow in their father's footsteps, which leads them to a showdown with dinosaurs in the Arctic."

Dinosaurs in film

The film features Pachyrhinosaurus as the star creatures. The film also shows the herbivorous Edmontosaurus and the carnivorous Gorgosaurus, a tyrannosaurid related to the Tyrannosaurus rex.

Production

Walking with Dinosaurs is based on the 1999 BBC miniseries of the same name. It is directed by Neil Nightingale and Pierre de Lespinois. The film is produced by BBC Earth, an arm of BBC Worldwide that was launched in 2009. BBC Earth's managing director Amanda Hill and creative director Neil Nightingale sought to produce film adaptations to extend the arm's brand of nature programming. They were inspired by returns for Deep Blue (2003) and Earth (2007), both theatrical versions cut from their respective nature documentary series.

In June 2010, BBC Earth entered a deal with Evergreen Films, based in the United States, to produce a film featuring dinosaurs. By the following November, BBC Earth entered a deal with Reliance Big Entertainment to finance the production of three films, including Walking with Dinosaurs. Production of the film was anticipated to cost , and the deal attached Pierre de Lespinois of Evergreen Films and Neil Nightingale of BBC Earth to co-direct the film. Variety reported, "Nightingale describes the project as 'mainstream entertainment' rather than natural history... but draws accurately on the latest discoveries in paleontology." The film features computer-animated creatures in live-action settings. Production began in 2011 in the U.S. state of Alaska, where Evergreen Films is headquartered. The film's dinosaurs lived in Alaska during the Late Cretaceous period approximately years ago, though they lived more in the northern part of the state due to the climate at the time. Filmmakers considered Southeast Alaska's rainforests below the Arctic Circle close to the climate that the dinosaurs experienced, so they filmed there and in Southcentral Alaska. Specific locations included Crow Creek Mine near Girdwood, Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula. In 2012, the state government of Alaska awarded the production companies a subsidy of . Additional filming took place in Australia.

The production incorporated animation work from the company Animal Logic, who is collaborating with animation producer Jinko Gotoh. The 3D effects were achieved with the use of the Fusion 3D system, which was used for Avatar (2009), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and live 3D sports broadcasts. In January 2013, Variety reported that Charlie Rowe was cast "in the lead role" for the film.

Marketing

The trailer for the film was screened at CinemaCon in April 2013, and the trailer was publicized the following month.

Macmillan Children's Books (under Macmillan Publishers) acquired the license to publish tie-in books for the film in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. They will publish an encyclopedic guide to the film's dinosaurs, a film handbook, and sticker books. The books will be published in November 2013. Travelgoods.com will produce back to school merchandise based on the film, and Keldan International will sell a hatching-egg toy for Christmas.

Release

IM Global, which represented rights to distribute the film, marketed the project at the American Film Market in November 2010. In what Variety called one of the "biggest deals in years", 20th Century Fox purchased rights to distribute the film in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Latin America, and other territories. Variety reported, "Insiders say it's safe to say that the presales cover most, if not all, of the film's budget." For other territories, Constantin purchased distribution rights for Germany, Alliance for Canada, Aurum for Spain, and Dutch Film Works for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

20th Century Fox will distribute the film in theaters in the United States and the United Kingdom on , 2013. It will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand on , 2014.