Universum Film has picked up German rights to the BBC’s $15 million natural history feature “Earth.”
The sale was struck by the BBC’s production and distribution partner Greenlight Media. Pic has already been pre-sold to Gaga in Japan, Gaumont in France, Wanda in Spain and Frenetic in Switzerland. Universum, part of the RTL Group, will release the movie in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg. “Earth,” directed by Alastair Fothergill, follows the epic migratory journeys of four animal families, against the spectacular backdrops of the earth’s most inhospitable landscapes.
Five years in the making, the project is being made simultaneously as an 11-hour TV series costing $32 million, and the 90-minute movie. The movie will be ready for release in summer 2007. “Earth” follows the first BBC/Greenlight pic “Deep Blue,” which was adapted from the “Blue Planet” series.
“It follows the earth’s journey around the sun and the massive influence it has on all life on the planet, from the Arctic spring to the Antarctic winter,” said BBC Worldwide’s deputy CEO Mike Philips. “It is quite simply our most ambitious project to date.”