With its establishment three years ago for its Emmy award-winning creature effects, expert Matt Drummond will showcase Dinosaur Island, a family film mainly targeted towards children from the ages of 6 to 12.
The creation of the feature film originally started when Drummond was living in Vanuatu and it was from there his company, Hive Studios dedicated its time on making documentaries about dinosaurs which featured dinosaurs and these were aired on well-known American cable networks such as National Geographic, History and Discovery channels. It was from there, Drummond crossed paths with legendary Hollywood producer, Paul Manson, who encouraged him to create his own movie.
Drummond states, “My previous experience running a visual effects studio had taught me that every project I do has to be commercially viable, if not, it just wasn’t worth doing because the name of the game is sustainability. I did most of the visual effects myself; I have 20 years’ experience in creature effects” (he won an Emmy Award last year for Art Direction and Graphic Design for his work on Big History for the History Channel).
The soundtrack for Dinosaur Island was composed by Australian Musician, Chris Wright with title track recorded by Kate DeArougo (Australian Idol Winner).
The film features two Australian acting newcomers, Kate Rasmussen (Kate Thompson) and Darius Williams (Lucas Winton).
It is also worth mentioning that Dinosaur Island is receiving international attention by both the scientific and entertainment community, highlighting Drummond’s controversial choice of showcasing the dinosaurs as feathered, in particularly the Tyrannosaurus.
Science has claimed that “The most recent discovery of fossilised feathers on a newly identified dinosaur far removed from the bird lineage means that feathers likely were more widespread than previously thought in the dinosaur world.” Knowing this fact has pushed the debate on the portrayal of feathered versus non-feathered and this has changed the perception on how dinosaurs are viewed from both science and film audiences.
Fans of the film love the fact that the “fluffy t-rex” has been included with many referring to Director, Colin Trevarrow’s decision not to include feathered dinosaurs on the upcoming feature film, Jurassic World. Science journalist, Mika McKinnon writes that she is “delighted that the first Dinosaur Island trailer features a fantastically fluffy T-Rex.”
Relative to the new debate, Director Matt Drummond explains, “Our Tyrannosaur is more about character…Having worked with Jack Horner, Luis Chiappe and a range of palaeontologists on all sorts of documentaries and exhibits, one thing is irrefutable… none agrees with the other. It’s an ever evolving science and new discoveries trump old theories almost weekly. Hopefully what we have created sparks the imagination and provides some great entertainment.”
Dinosaur Island will be distributed exclusively by Hoyts and will screen nationally from 14 February 2015.
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