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.