- Earth (2007 film)
Infobox Film
name = Earth
image_size =
caption =
director =Alastair Fothergill Mark Linfield
producer =BBC Worldwide Greenlight Media
writer =
narrator =Patrick Stewart
starring =
music =George Fenton Berliner Philharmoniker
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released =16 November 2007 [cite web |url=http://www.loveearth.com/uk/film |title=In cinemas November16] (
UK )
runtime = 95 minutes
awards =
country =
language = English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese
budget =USD 15 million
gross =
website = http://www.loveearth.com/
amg_id = 1:419655
imdb_id = 0393597"Earth" is an award-winning natural history film from the
BBC Natural History Unit , narrated byPatrick Stewart . It was released in cinemas internationally in 2007 and is due to be released in the US in 2009.A UK-German co-production, it was filmed entirely in high-definition and
35mm using the latest filming techniques. A companion piece to the 2006BBC /Discovery/NHK series "Planet Earth", the film uses many of the sequences from the television series, albeit in a re-edited form."Earth" depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet and cautions the threats to their future survival. It was co-directed by
Alastair Fothergill , who also acted as executive producer of the television series, andMark Linfield , also the producer of "Planet Earth"’s "From Pole to Pole" and "Seasonal Forests" episodes.The same production team had previously worked on "Deep Blue", a documentary about life in the
ocean s released in 2003 and itself based on the television series "The Blue Planet ". They are currently working on a television sequel to "Planet Earth" called "The Frozen Planet " and a feature-length documentary (in conjunction withDisneynature ) called "Chimpanzee".Subject matter
Over the course of a calendar year, "Earth" takes the viewer on a journey from the
North Pole to the South, revealing how plants and animals respond to the power of the sun and the changing seasons. The film focuses on three particular species, thepolar bear ,African elephant andhumpback whale .In the high
Arctic , as the darkness of winter gives way to the sun, a mother polar bear is shown emerging from her den with two new cubs. She needs food and must lead her cubs to her hunting ground on thesea ice before it begins to break up. By April, the sun never sets, and by August all the sea ice has melted. The mother and cubs have retreated to dry land, but a male polar bear is trapped at sea and must seek out land by swimming. He reaches an island with awalrus colony but is too exhausted to make a successful kill. He dies from injuries sustained in a walrus attack.African elephants are filmed from the air as they negotiate a
dust storm in theKalahari Desert . June is the dry season and they must follow ancient paths passed down through generations to reach watering holes. A mother and calf are separated from the herd in the storm but manage to reach shelter. The matriarch leads the herd to a temporary watering hole, but they must share it with hungrylion s. The lions are shown attacking a solitary elephant at night, when their superior vision gives them the upper hand. The herd times its arrival at theOkavango Delta to coincide with seasonal floodwaters which transform the desert into a lush water world.A humpback whale mother and calf are filmed from the air and underwater at their breeding grounds in the shallow seas of the
tropic s. There is nothing here for the mother to eat, so she must guide her calf on a convert|4000|mi|km|sing=on journey south to the rich feeding grounds nearAntarctica , the longest migration of any marine mammal. En route, they negotiate dangerous seas wheregreat white shark s are filmed breaching as they huntsealion s, andsailfish anddolphin s combine to bait a shoal of small fish. By October they enter polar waters, and by December the Antarctic sun has melted the sea ice to form sheltered bays. Here, the whales are shown feeding onkrill by trapping them in bubble nets.The stories of these individual creatures are woven into the film alongside a great many additional scenes. The supporting cast of animals include
mandarin duck lings filmed jumping from their tree hole nest, Arctic wolves huntingcaribou ,cheetah huntingThomson's gazelle ,birds of paradise displaying in theNew Guinea rainforest anddemoiselle crane s on their autumn migration across theHimalaya s.Time-lapse photography is used to show the blossoming of spring flowers, seasonal changes todeciduous forest s, clouds sweeping up Himalayan valleys and the growth of junglespore s andfungi .Environmental message
The narration makes reference to
environmental change s throughout the film, and uses the three featured species to illustrate particular threats to the planet’s wildlife. In the Arctic, rising temperatures are causing a greater area of sea ice to melt and threatening the polar bear withextinction as early as 2030.Global warming is also disrupting the planet’sweather system s and making seasonal rainfall patterns less predictable. This poses a threat to creatures like elephants, which must travel greater distances to reach water. Rising ocean temperatures have started to kill theplankton on which humpback whales and most other sea life depend. However, the film also ends with the message that "it’s not too late to make a difference".Production
"Earth" was produced by Alix Tidmarsh of
BBC Worldwide and Sophokles Tasioulis ofGreenlight Media . Following "Deep Blue", it is the second film of a five-picture deal between the two companies.The process of bringing "Planet Earth" and "Earth" to the screen took over 5 years. With a combined budget of
USD 47 million, USD15 million of which was earmarked for the film, it represented the most expensive production in the history of documentary filmmaking [ [http://grhomeboy.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/%E2%80%98earth%E2%80%99-vision-and-the-art-of-persuasion/ ‘Earth’ > Vision and the art of persuasion « HomeboyMediaNews ] ] .Principal photography began in 2004 and was completed in 2006.
Box office
"Earth" received its global
premiere at Spain’sSan Sebastian International Film Festival in September 2007. It was released acrossEurope in the fourth quarter of 2007 to much success. It grossed over USD30 million at the German box office, became one of the three highest-grossing films of the year in France and had the best opening of any natural history documentary in Spain. By contrast, in the UK "Earth" debuted on just 14 screens and went on to gross less thanGBP 75,000.In January 2008, the Japanese version of "Earth", narrated by actor
Ken Watanabe , knockedHollywood blockbuster "I Am Legend" off the top of the box office despite opening on half the number of screens. It went on to gross more than 2 billion yen (USD18.5 million), making it the most successful documentary there of the last 10 years.In April 2008, it was announced that "Earth" would be the first feature distributed by the newly-formed Disneynature, a subsidiary of the
Disney Company specialising in natural history documentaries. The film will get a US theatrical release in 2009, though it's narration is getting divided theories ofJames Earl Jones recording a new narration or the US release will retainPatrick Stewart 's original narration. Disneynature will also distribute the film inLatin America n territories.References
Further reading
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nature-filmmaking-ready-for-their-closeup-399342.html Nature filmmaking: Ready for their close-up] from "
The Independent ".
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/03/nearth03.xml Screen giants of "Earth", the year's biggest film] from "The Daily Telegraph ".
* [http://www.greenlightmedia.com/cms/upload/public_relations/earth_press_book_UK.pdf "Earth" press book] from theGreenlight Media website.External links
* [http://www.loveearth.com/uk/film/ Official website]
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