EXCLUSIVE: White Planet director Thierry Ragobert will commence the 3D nature extravaganza Amazonia beginning in September with Jean Labadie’s Le Pacte handling world sales and French distribution.

Produced by France’s Biloba Films and Brazil’s Gullane Filmes, the project was developed by Gédéon’s Stéphane Millière who first discussed the it with Labadie when the latter ran Bac Films. Millière is producing along with Fabiano and Caio Gullane. Laurent Baujard is the executive producer.

With Brazil’s support, the EUR 15m film has now come together with a planned 25-week shoot in the Amazon Rainforest and studio facilities near Manaus. Several shooting teams will head out into the jungle to capture its inhabitants with some fully immersing themselves over several weeks.

The dramatised story will follow Saï, a Capuchin monkey born and raised in captivity who survives a plane crash in the wilderness of the Amazon jungle. He must face an unfamiliar and daunting world while finding his way and trying to protect himself. He will come face to face with a cast that includes a jaguar, an anaconda, a kinkajou, a giant otter, a harpy eagle, pink dolphins, crocodiles and a tayra.

The extras will include 5,000 animal and 40,000 plant species along with 2.5million insects. Ultimately, Saï realizes that finding his fellow capuchins may be the only way to survive.

The script was written by Ragobert, Johanne Bernard, Louis-Paul Desanges, Luc Marescot and Luiz Bolognesi, all of whom worked in concert with two biologists to ensure the story’s faithfulness to real-life in the jungle. A Rainforest expert was also employed and wildlife shooting expert Pascal Treguy (The Fox And The Child) will also collaborate.

The crew will include veterans of such films as Oceans and Winged Migration. The film will be delivered in the spring of 2013 with a big launch announcement at the Rio Film Festival later this year.

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