Another Leap for Alaska's Film Industry

Local production company Evergreen Films has been certified to use high-end 3-D production technology developed by A-list Hollywood director James Cameron.

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By Bill McAllister
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Story Created: Sep 14, 2011 at 7:42 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Sep 16, 2011 at 9:24 AM AKDT

In another leap forward for the growing Alaska film industry, local production company Evergreen Films has been named the first studio certified to use high-end 3-D production technology developed by A-list Hollywood director James Cameron.

That technology will be used in the current Evergreen production of "Walking With Dinosaurs."

Mike Devlin, a former software entrepreneur, came to Alaska six years ago and started a small production company.

Now he's assembling a “smart stage” studio in South Anchorage, which also will be the site of the first post-production on a major Hollywood film, using Cameron's technology that made such a splash two years ago with “Avatar.”

It does not look like much yet, but the warehouse near Dimond and the Seward Highway will soon house a 50-foot-by-50-foot-by-30 foot green screen, used for special film effects.

It's just one way in which Evergreen Films of Anchorage and Los Angeles is raising its profile dramatically.

Production has begun on "Walking With Dinosaurs," a 3-D project with the BBC scheduled for international theatrical distribution in December 2013.

Evergreen will make the film with the technology developed by Cameron and partner Vince Pace.

“We've always said that we wanted to try to have “Avatar”-class production value in our films, in particular the level of 3D,” Devlin said. “So by partnering with Jim Cameron, who's obviously a great filmmaker with ‘Titanic' and 'Avatar' and 'Terminator' and the other films he's done, we get the benefit not only of great technology, but technology that was developed from a filmmaker's point of view."

Evergreen is the first studio certified by Cameron's group for use of the technology.

NANA, the regional Native corporation for northwest Alaska and a minority owner of Evergreen, will make the technology available to outside movie crews.

"But we've also formed a support company called Piksik, a word for 'quick response,' because we want to be responsive to the kinds of customers that come here to produce films, and our relationship enables us to be where people come to have access to this new technology that we're talking about -- high end, 3D technology that will only be available in a couple of places in the world to start with," said Robin Kornfield of NANA, who’s serving as Piksik president.

The first movie to come out of the collaboration with Cameron, "Walking With Dinosaurs" will not be a documentary, but a family film, vetted by paleontologists and based on animals thought to have existed above the Arctic circle 70 million years ago.

John Copeland said it’s "about a new species of pachyrhinosaurus that is unique to Alaska. And that is the hero of our story. This is an Alaskan story about Alaskan dinosaurs that is being filmed in Alaska."

"We'll have characters, dramatic arcs for those characters and it'll be a real family draw," Devlin said.

It's a dinosaur-size step forward for filmmaking in Alaska.

The live action shooting for "Walking With Dinosaurs" is taking place in Southcentral Alaska, where the climate is thought to be similar to that of the North Slope 70 million years ago.

The superimposition of CGI dinosaurs over that footage is touted as being far more realistic than "Jurassic Park," based on vastly increased knowledge about dinosaurs since then.

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so said on Thursday, Sep 15 at 5:25 PM

so what? story not loading or is that it?

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