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Animal Planet Turns Page in the Story of Grizzly Man Timothy Treadwell in New 'Prequel' that Documents His Tragic Love Affair with Alaskan Giants
-- Network Mines a Decade of Footage of Slain Wildlife
Filmmaker/Photographer's Life to Tell His Own Story of His Relationship
with Bears Before His Death --
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 10 -- Animal Planet announced
today that it will air a new eight-part series this summer that documents
the life of Timothy Treadwell in the decade before his death. It will draw
upon the hundreds of hours of archived footage, private pages from his
diaries and more than 10,000 still photographs, ultimately telling the
story he truly wanted to before his untimely death from the very creatures
he loved so deeply. The series, THE GRIZZLY MAN DIARIES, is slated to
premiere Friday, August 22 2008 at 9 PM (ET/PT), Animal Planet president
and general manager Marjorie Kaplan said from the Television Critics
Association bi-annual press tour in Beverly Hills, California.
The footage and stories within THE GRIZZLY MAN DIARIES present
astonishing revelations about grizzly behavior and survival -- all while
showcasing the personalities of the individual bears as well as Treadwell's
passion and unique connection with them. The series truly tells the story
that Treadwell hoped to share -- featuring "his" bears as genuine creatures
to be respected, admired, loved, heralded and amazed by, not as the wild,
strong and dangerous animals that killed him. THE GRIZZLY MAN DIARIES is
from the producers of both the acclaimed feature documentary GRIZZLY MAN
and Werner Herzog's new feature ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD and is
scored by musician/composer Richard Thompson, who also scored GRIZZLY MAN.
"We all know how this tragic story concludes," noted Kaplan. "But with
this new series, Animal Planet really digs deep into the glory that Timothy
saw in these magnificent creatures. These are the fascinating stories he
died to tell."
For 13 years, Treadwell spent summers photographing and filming a
highly social community of coastal, wild grizzly bears in Alaska's Katmai
National Park. GRIZZLY MAN showcased his life as fantastic retrospective on
his life, and now Animal Planet has the unprecedented opportunity to follow
on the heels of that by using never-before-seen footage to tell a marvelous
story of a man in love with beast.
Set against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness, his expeditions
were organized around the handful of distinct geographic areas within
Katmai that he traversed each year. Several of the locations he visited,
and certainly many of the activities he undertook, had no precedent.
Treadwell's access and relationship with these bears -- adults and cubs
alike -- shows a unique intimacy with the creatures only he seemed to have.
THE GRIZZLY MAN DIARIES draws viewers in to Treadwell's inner sanctum,
allowing a look like no other into his relationship with the bears he
cherished.
THE GRIZZLY MAN DIARIES is a production of Creative Differences for
Animal Planet. Erik Nelson and Jewel Palovak are the executive producers
for Creative Differences, and Jason Carey is the executive producer for
Animal Planet.
Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery
Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses
viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep
content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners
access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for
immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and
enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available
in more than 93 million homes in the US; online assets
http://www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things
animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com,
the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption;
PetsIncredible, a major producer and distributor of pet-training videos and
includes web service PetVideo.com; and other media platforms including a
robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising
extensions.
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