Oscar winner Morgan Freeman provides the narration for Netflix’s documentary series Life on Our Planet. The eight-part docuseries just launched a trailer that features a sampling of the many creatures who roamed Earth millions of years ago.
In notes provided by Netflix, producer Dan Tapster explained that they created the look of the dinosaurs by being as scientifically accurate as possible.
“Ultimately, the goal was to keep creative license to a minimum and try instead to have scientific veracity at the heart of each sequence. From an asset design point of view, that’s relatively straightforward since the designs are all based on fossils. However, sometimes there is disagreement amongst the paleontological community, and when that was the case, we always tried to position ourselves with the most widely held view,” stated Tapster.
Tapster continued: “Take the T-Rex as an example. Our T-Rex looks surprisingly different from the overly muscled ‘shrink-wrapped’ versions you may see in movies, but that’s because ours is based on the latest interpretation of the fossil evidence. But nevertheless, one controversial part is feathering, and paleontologists are split about whether T-Rex had feathers or not, and if it did, what were they like and how dense were they? After much discussion, we gave our male T-Rex quill-like feathers running down the nape of his neck.
At first, we put on so many feathers that it gave the greatest predator of all time a mullet — he looked more like a Metallica fan! But once we dialed them back, we got to that sweet spot. While we felt that this was the widely held view, there will inevitably be people who disagree!”
The docuseries was executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey, and produced by Silverback Films and Amblin Television.
Life on Our Planet will premiere on October 25, 2023.
The Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:
This is the story of life’s epic battle to conquer and survive on planet Earth. Today, there are 20 million species on our planet, yet what we see is just a snapshot in time — 99% of earth’s inhabitants are lost to our deep past. The story of what happened to these dynasties — their rise and their fall – is truly remarkable.
In partnership with Industrial Light & Magic, the series uses the latest technology and science to bring long-extinct creatures back to life, Life on Our Planet reveals the incredible story of life on our planet.
