BBC Worldwide Signs Movie Pact with India’s Reliance

LONDON/MUMBAI: A new deal between BBC Worldwide and India’s Reliance Big Entertainment sees the two outfits partnering on three motion pictures, for both co-production and distribution.

The first theatrical feature to be co-produced from the new partnership will be the 3D live-action feature Walking with the Dinosaurs 3D, budgeted at around $65 million. The film will be be co-directed by Pierre De Lespinois of Evergreen Films and BBC Earth’s Neil Nightingale (formerly the head of the BBC Natural History Unit).

The second title is Africa 3D, which will be filmed alongside the BBC’s forthcoming landmark series Africa. The $25 million documentary will also be in partnership with Evergreen Films.

Global distribution will be handled by Reliance’s international film sales and financing subsidiary, IM Global, which will launch international sales for Walking with Dinosaurs 3D at AFM. IM Global is also heading to AFM to launch worldwide sales for BBC Earth’s documentary feature Life, which is in post-production for a theatrical release in 2011.

Marcus Arthur, BBC Worldwide’s managing director of global brands, said, “By partnering with Reliance Big Entertainment we have the opportunity to realise a long held ambition of making BBC Earth 3D feature films. Earth demonstrated the huge appetite of audiences for quality natural history filmmaking and the 3D experience of Walking with Dinosaurs and Africa will allow audiences to immerse themselves in our incredible content as never before.”