Feature Film
Alongside the commissioning of the television series, BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media secured financing for a US$15 million film version of Planet Earth. This followed the earlier success of Deep Blue, the BBC's 2003 theatrical nature documentary which used re-edited footage from The Blue Planet. The film was co-directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield and produced by Alix Tidmarsh and Sophokles Tasioulis. Only 30% of the footage shown in Earth is new, with the remainder being reworked from the television series to suit the narrative of the film. David Attenborough was replaced as narrator by high-profile actors: Patrick Stewart for the UK market and James Earl Jones for the US.
Earth had its worldwide premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2007. Lionsgate released the film in several international markets over the following year. In the USA, it became the first film to be released by Disneynature, the newly-formed nature documentary arm of the Walt Disney Company. When released on Earth Day 2009 it set the record for the highest opening weekend gross for a nature documentary, and went on to become the third highest grossing documentary of all time. It has grossed more than $108 million worldwide; in the nature documentary genre, only March of the Penguins has achieved greater success at the box office.
Read more about this topic: Planet Earth (TV Series)
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