Prehistoric Planet - Jon Favreau & BBC does dinosaurs

[Melpardus]

So, 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:

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”).

If you've seen me in the thread for the new Lion King movie, you know I've opined about this combination of Favreau's virtual filmmaking techniques and a big-budget natural history division (I was thinking DisneyNature) to take on a prehistoric ecosystem on more than one occasion, so as you can expect I'm trying to temper my expectations and keep from getting too excited about this. There's still so many ways this could fail, starting with their concept artist(s) and creature designers; fortunately at least one decent artist has thrown his hat in the ring, but he unfortunately has a history of having his work being screwed up along the BBC pipeline. (Not a good look when your modeling team doesn't understand the underlying anatomy.) However, if this turns out well it could very well be a dream come true.

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; I hear Netflix's BBC wildlife documentaries are well-made.

 

[Melpardus]

After over a year, we've got some official signs of life.


I'd assume based on this that production is set to start fairly soon and that the scientific consultancy process regarding creature design and the actual focus of the series/story has already begun.

 

[Flash525]

I'd be keen on keeping an eye on this one.

 

[#root]

Oh wow. If it’s The Jungle Book/The Lion King levels of CGI, then it could be a really cool docu-series. I’m hoping the designs are more accurate to modern theories about dinosaur anatomy and not too Jurassic Park like (which were great but we could use a little something different now).

 

[Melpardus]

Every paleoartist I know has been hitting up BBC and Favreau to do creature design work, and paleontologist/paleoartist Mark Witton has implied that he's been in consultation with whoever they've got as producers for a while now. Hopefully they'll follow his (and others') advice to the T; if they do, it'll certainly be a visual spectacle. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures as scientists envision them today are so much different from how they were in the days of Jurassic Park; I'm hoping this really helps usher in a new age of the public's perception of them.

 

[#root]

 

[Melpardus]

It is glorious to finally see!

I even broke the mould and made a reaction video for each one!

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

I hope we see Mammoth.

 

[Melpardus]

The series is covering just the end of the Cretaceous about 70-66 million years ago, so we're definitely not going to see any mammoths; those didn't evolve until much more recently, like 5 million years ago for the oldest mammoths.

 

[Melpardus]

A new trailer dropped on Wednesday morning and it looks even more amazing!


And yes, I reacted to it that evening:

 

[Drizzle]

Pretty cool and appropriate that David Attenborough is narrating this since his brother played John Hammond.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Well, I'm definitely looking forward to this, especially with Dominion right around the corner. The CGI looks great and reminds me of proper, big budget version of Walking with Dinosaurs. It's also pretty cool that they got Richard Attenborough's brother as the narrator because he sounds just like him.

 

[Melpardus]

It is certainly very nice to see something like this coming out to counterbalance Dominion. As far as media depictions of dinosaurs and co are concerned, I think the biggest problem is that even though a lot of people might know that Jurassic World has largely inaccurate designs and depictions (to the point that when you bring it up in discussion, they'll use that as a dodge) there's barely any modern media that exists to give people a proper idea of current scientific thinking.

Frankly, Prehistoric Planet is exactly what the Jurassic World: Dominion prologue should've been. Aside from the up-to-date designs – that really should've been done in the prologue if they really wanted to convey the theme of how "unnatural" the cloned dinosaurs are – it's all set during the late Cretaceous (same period the prologue was supposed to be set during), gives a global view of the world, and all the creatures you'll see in the show lived at almost the exact same time.

 

[#root]

K so I’m sad now .

 

[DarkKnight88]

 

[Albright]

new trailer:

 

[Iceman]

Whattt, how did I not hear about this?!! Awesome, what a project. Right up my street.