Disneynature has acquired North American and Mexican rights to 3D Entertainment’s OceanWorld 3D, the first feature-length nature documentary filmed in 3D.
OceanWorld 3D premiered at the Cannes market in May and will be released theatrically in France and Russia in August. The North American release date will be announced in due course.
The film explores the world’s oceans and their wildlife from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Argentina’s Peninsula Valdez to Mexico’s Roca Partida Island.
Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the celebrated underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, presents the film, which was directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello and produced by 3D Entertainment chairman Francois Mantello.
The Mantello brothers took seven years to make OceanWorld 3D after 25 international expeditions and 200 hours of footage shot exclusively in the wild in 3D.
Disneynature executive vice-president and general manager Jean-Francois Camilleri said OceanWorld 3D was “exactly the kind of film that Disneynature is striving to make, and it delivers an incomparable level of quality and craftsmanship.”
“We had various distribution options for this film, but Disney’s overwhelming reaction made this a simple decision for us,” Cousteau and the Mantello Brothers added.
Disneynature became the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in more than 60 years when it launched in April 2008.
The division’s first release was Earth, which set a record $8.8m launch weekend for a nature documentary back in April and went on to gross $31.4m in North America and $74.6m through various distributors overseas.
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