 Dinosaurs Alive!
Run time: 40 min.
Opening August 9, 2008
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Michael Douglas Narrates a Real-Life Scientific Adventure Featuring the World’s Top Dinosaur Hunters
Dinosaurs Alive is a captivating adventure of science and discovery that will enthrall audiences with its unique look at the entire age of dinosaurs. Opening summer of 2008, the new IMAX® film, narrated by Michael Douglas, features spectacular animation and a live-action story that joins renowned paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History and their graduate students in the field as they uncover new fossils—including the remarkable discovery of what may be the oldest dinosaur ever found in North America.
Dinosaurs Alive brings dinosaurs, their behaviors and their ancient environments to life on screen as never before seen—juxtaposing stunningly realistic and scientifically accurate computer generated imagery (CGI) with intriguing 1920s documentary footage, dramatic new scenes of real fossils and current dinosaur hunting expeditions. Using state-of-the-art techniques, the filmmakers have created an array of amazingly life-like creatures based on the latest fossil evidence so that audiences can experience these creatures on the giant screen.
Interwoven throughout the film’s storyline is a real-life scientific adventure that looks at the field of paleontology and the crucial finds made over the years that have revolutionized our understanding of the mysterious creatures that dominated the earth for 150 million years. The film reveals how paleontologists search for, discover, and study fossils to determine different dinosaur species—how big they grew, how fast they moved, how they were related to other species, how they interacted with other dinosaurs and creatures of their era, what they may have eaten, how they may have raised their young, what their surroundings looked like, and how they may have died.
Audiences will meet and learn about Tarbosaurus (a close relative to T.Rex), Velociraptors, Protoceratops, Seismosaurus, and more. They will witness dinosaurs locked in mortal combat, nesting in colonies, protecting their young, and facing catastrophic forces of nature. They will also learn which ones traveled in herds, which made nests, which were the predators and which were the hunted, and other surprising behaviors.
The film takes visitors to Mongolia with mesmerizing 1920s archival footage of paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews—a larger-than-life adventurer believed to be the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character. Andrews led five American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) expeditions to the Gobi Desert and discovered there one of the greatest repositories of dinosaur remains ever found. The film then returns to that same site today with leading AMNH paleontologists Mike Novacek and Mark Norell, who have been making annual expeditions to the desert every summer since 1990. IMAX cameras follow Mike and Mark and an inspiring team of dedicated young graduate students eager to hone their dinosaur hunting skills in the field, as they set out on a hot and dusty Mad Max-like journey across the Gobi’s stark desert terrain.
Dinosaurs Alive then heads to New Mexico, one of the few places in the world where rock layers preserve the whole age of dinosaurs—from the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic Periods—and where breakthrough discoveries continue to be made in the high desert badlands. The film shows the rich history of life stretching back 220 million years and brings audiences to the fabled Ghost Ranch, where the number of fossils uncovered during the dig is staggering—revealing layers of dinosaurs and reptiles in concentrated deposits in a mass burial place. Here, the dinosaur hunters make a compelling find.
More fossils than ever are being found today. While there have been great discoveries over the last century, and we know much more about these amazing creatures than ever before, the scientific quest to find and understand dinosaurs and the world they inhabited is ongoing. Dinosaurs Alive estimates that we’ve discovered less than two percent of all the dinosaur species that once lived. For young paleontologists, the adventure is just beginning, and this spellbinding new film is sure to spark imaginings of what mysteries still lie buried beneath our feet.
Dinosaurs Alive is a production of David Clark Inc., Giant Screen Films, the Maryland Science Center, and Stardust Blue, in association with the American Museum of Natural History. The film is written and directed by two veteran filmmakers, Academy Award-nominated Bayley Silleck and Emmy Award-winning David Clark, with cinematography by Bill Reeve. Dinosaur animation was created by Digital Artists Montreal Network (DAMN), whose artists have previously created dinosaurs for the Discovery Channel specials about dinosaurs. Major funding was provided by the National Science Foundation with additional support from the Museum Film Network, and the 3D Film Interest Group. The film is distributed by Giant Screen Films of Evanston, IL.
For more information about Dinosaurs Alive!, go to www.dinosalive.com
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