WILD OCEAN 3D, A SPECTACULAR
UNDERWATER ADVENTURE WHERE AFRICA MEETS THE SEA,OPENS MAY
22, 2008 AT AUTONATION® IMAX® THEATER.
Witness one of the most incredible mass feeding melees in
the natural world.
Fort Lauderdale, May 13, 2008 – Wild Ocean 3D
is an action-packed, inspirational IMAX® film exploring the
interplay between man and our endangered ocean ecosystem.
The film, opening at AutoNation® IMAX® Theater located at
Museum of Discovery and Science on May 22, 2008, highlights
one of nature’s greatest migration spectacles, plunging
viewers into an underwater feeding frenzy, an epic struggle
for survival where whales, sharks, dolphins, seals, gannets
and billions of fish collide with the most voracious sea
predator, mankind. Filmed off the Wild Coast of South Africa
and set to the rhythm of the local people, Wild Ocean 3D
reveals the economic and cultural impact of the ocean while
celebrating the communal efforts to protect our invaluable
marine resources. This film is sponsored locally by the
Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation.
The film chronicles a massive annual feeding frenzy;
billions of sardines travel up the KwaZulu-Natal shoreline,
known to locals as the Wild Coast. For the people living
along the African shore, this migration has provided a food
source for countless generations while farther out at sea
ocean predators come from great distances to feast.
Bottlenose dolphins create superpods, thousands strong, to
track down the huge shoals using sonar. Sharks sense blood
in the water and join the hunt. Seals and common dolphins
chase the fish from cooler currents up the coast into the
warmer tropical waters. Diving birds, Cape Gannets, join the
battle with aerial attacks from the sky. All of these
animals are drawn to the scene, enmeshed in one of the most
incredible mass feeding melees in the natural world. Eat—or
get eaten.
Unfortunately such a richness of life is now rare in our
seas. For centuries the ocean was considered a vast
limitless resource. As fishing practices grew more
industrialized and efficient throughout the 20th century,
entire fish stocks around North America, Europe, and Asia
began to collapse. The fish, hauled onto boats by the ton,
were an integral part of a complex marine ecosystem, a link
in a great food chain on which many predators depend.
Eventually, entire fish species were decimated and the ocean
predator populations went into a steep decline. Now a new
threat, global climate change, threatens to further damage
the fragile ocean ecology. While Wild Ocean explores the
causes and effects of man’s impact, it an inspirational film
looking toward a bright future, taking audiences to a rare
unspoiled marine wilderness to glimpse what the oceans of
the world once looked like. The film champions the creation
of marine reserves necessary to bring our oceans back to
life. South Africa leads the way.
Wild Ocean is a timely and uplifting film that celebrates
the life in our oceans, the animals that now depend on us to
survive. It is a film about the people that come together to
protect our world. Hope is alive on the Wild Coast, where
Africa meets the sea.
Wild Ocean is a production of Giant Screen Films and Yes/No
Productions. The film is written and directed by Luke
Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the Academy Award nominated
creators of the international sensation STOMP. Cresswell and
McNicholas have previously teamed with Giant Screen Films on
the award-winning giant-screen film, Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey.
Photography is by award winning director of photography,
Reed Smoot with underwater photography by D.J. Roller.
Original music by Cresswell and McNicholas with sound design
and mix by Mike Roberts and Brian Eimer.
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www.wildoceanfilm.com