Disney to make orangutan documentary
By Carolyn Giardina
April 21, 2008
Walt Disney Studios has launched a new production banner, Disneynature, to produce nature documentaries for theatrical release.
The worldwide initiative will involve a number of its businesses, including publications, licensing, parks and educational outreach.
Disney veteran Jean-Francois Camilleri, who has served as senior vp and GM of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures France, will head the new unit. Disneynature will be based in France, where Camilleri and his team will oversee the initiation, development and acquisition of feature projects.
Disney also is assembling a team of filmmakers.
Producer-director Alastair Fothergill, whose credits include the “Planet Earth” series for the BBC and Discovery Channel, has entered a multipicture deal with Disneynature. His first release under the new banner is “Earth,” which is produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media and co-directed by Mark Linfield. Lensed while making “Planet Earth,” the feature “Earth” will be narrated by James Earl Jones and premiere theatrically in the domestic market on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. The film also will be released under the Disneynature banner in Latin America.A hope also is that the features would “encourage people of all ages to play a bigger role in protecting what we now have,” Disney CEO Robert Iger said.
Disneynature projects currently in development or production include:
– “The Crimsom Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos,” co-directed by Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward and produced by Paul Webster. This film will take viewers to the isolated shores of Lake Natron in northern Tanzania for a bird’s-eye view of the lives of flamingos. A worldwide rollout begins in France in December.
– “Oceans,” in which French co-directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud set out to capture the full expanse of the waters that have played a crucial and constant role in the history and sustenance of man. Is it set for domestic release in 2010.
– “Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight,” directed by Charlie Hamilton James and produced by Frederic Fougea, centers on a 6-year-old male orangutan and his little sister, who must take a journey to find a home and a family. Worldwide release is in 2010.
– “Big Cats,” co-directed by Keith Scholey and Fothergill and produced by Alix Tidmarsh. The film follow three mothers — a lioness, a leopard and a cheetah — as they explore their world on the African plains. Worldwide release is set for 2011.
