BBC/Favreau Do Dinosaurs

[Panpardus]

This news first came out earlier in this year, but I noticed it hasn't been brought up here.

It appears that Jon Favreau is gonna continue with his kick of virtual filmmaking with hyperrealistic CGI, and this time it's for a project that really deserves this treatment. For those who don't want to check out the link, here's the deets, per the relevant Variety article: https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/apple- ... 203208652/

[quote]Apple has greenlit “Prehistoric Planet,” a natural-history series that will recreate the last days of the dinosaurs. Jon Favreau and “Planet Earth II” producer Mike Gunton are teaming on the series for Apple’s soon-to-launch streaming service. It will be produced by BBC Studios’ highly-regarded Natural History Unit, which is based in Bristol, England.

The show will use CGI to take viewers back in time, experiencing the wonders of planet Earth 66 million years ago. Double Academy Award winner Andrew R. Jones (“Avatar”) is also on the production team, as is producer Tim Walker (“Marooned with Ed Stafford”).[/quote]

I've opined about this combination of Favreau's virtual filmmaking techniques and a big-budget natural history division (I was originally thinking DisneyNature) ever since I saw what he and his effects team were doing with The Lion King. Regardless of what you think about the movie as a whole, I think everyone's in agreement that the film looks amazingly realistic, so translating this over into a prehistoric environment would definitely up the ante and really show off how this sort of technology can really have an impact on the viewing experience, as well as filling a void that hasn't really been covered since the early 2000s. It's actually the 20th anniversary of the debut of Walking with Dinosaurs this month.

I've been trying to temper my expectations and keep from getting too excited about this whenever I think about it. There's still so many ways this could slip and fail, chiefly with their consultants (or at least not listening to them), concept artist(s), and creature designers. I know a decent number of great paleoartists (Fred Weirum, RJ Palmer, Chris Masna, and a few others immediately come to mind; definitely recommend checking them out if you're interested) and it would be awesome to see them get a shot at bringing some of their work to a big-budget project like this. Hopefully their work doesn't get too mangled along the production pipeline; BBC as of late doesn't have the best recent track record of keeping the integrity of the designs they commission for the dinosaur media they've produced.

Also, not hugely in love with the fact that it'll be an Apple TV release rather than something big-screen, but oh well. Sometimes you just have to take what you can; Netflix's BBC wildlife documentaries are well-made.

[Ultra Fox]

meh