Discovery seems to be scooping up all the talent for its upcoming shows. First, the channel landed Steven Spielberg for its next documentary series “Future Earth.” Now Discovery goes back in time with the help of Pixar to produce “Reign of the Dinosaurs” — a look at the prehistoric age of dinos with the help of Pixar’s top-notch animation and celebrated approach to storytelling. News about a possible co-production came out early last year, when several Pixar animators took a field trip to archaeological sites at the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota.
The special for the cable network is currently billed as “Avatar” meets “Jurassic Park”, and we can only hope it will be a dino-only affair, without pesky human time travelers out for precious prehistoric hides — after all, James Cameron isn’t involved, is he? Here’s the official synopsis from the Discovery press release:
Avatar meets Jurassic Park as the latest paleontological research meets Hollywood story telling. Discovery Channel teams with the top creative talent from Disney and Pixar to create an unparalleled television event. New creatures abound in a wondrous new world – giant dinos with Freddy Krueger style clawed hands, pygmy T-rex, frogs so big they can eat dinosaurs. Learn the latest in understanding of dinosaur behaviors with exotic mating dances, the inner workings of the T-rex’s nuclear family, dinosaurs drunk on fermenting fruit, dinosaurs in apocalyptic events, the underwater birthing of mosasaurs, and prehistory’s angriest mammals. A daring and provocative new chapter in television, REIGN OF THE DINOSAURS is bound to be the benchmark for all future dinosaur natural history programming.
So wait, with the “Avatar” reference, will this be in 3D as well? Who knows, but if they can broadcast golf in 3D we suppose anything is possible now. -Mark Zhuravsky