The world of paleontology is currently experiencing a golden age: more fossil species have been unearthed in the past decade than in the last two hundred years when this science first emerged.
Thanks to new technologies combining genetics, ethology, geology and even particle physics, paleontologists can now recreate the missing branches of the tree of life. Assumptions have been shattered and all the rules are changing. Now, paleontologists can finally answer three vital questions:
- Where do insects come from?
- Where do birds come from?
- Where do mammals come from?
This series, based on ultra-realistic 3D computer graphics, and supported by the world’s leading international scientists will bring these forgotten creatures to the screen and explore the ideological controversies or frauds that accompany their discovery.
Led like a paleontological investigation, “The New Prehistory” trilogy permits viewers to become involved in a thrilling contemporary science adventure. To illustrate the action the films will combine footage of excavated animals in perfect condition, ultra-realistic reconstitutions using CGI of little-known creatures and X-ray imaging of modern animals interspersed with interviews with scientists.
In the field or in laboratories, each film will follow several international experts. Their search for the answer to an extremely simple question will follow a logical progression in three stages: part one will be an inventory of our current knowledge, part two will be the bulk of the film and will look at the latest findings in the field while part three will examine the lessons learned. New findings punctuate each film and are used by the scientists to back up their theories. Reading in stones is not easy: disputes about the interpretation are inevitable but multiple techniques in different domains are used to facilitate the reading. Today paleontologists rely on the same laser scanners or tomography used in medicine as well as electron microscope imagery and X-rays to compare the anatomies of the living and dead animals. They even use a huge particle accelerator called a synchrotron to have a three-dimensional vision of the creatures petrified within the rocks.
These films will apply scientific rigor rather than participating in the sensationalism and mythmaking that has marked dinosaur films in the recent past. No offense to the screenwriters of Jurassic Park but neither dinosaurs nor insects trapped in amber will one day reveal their DNA!
This scientific rigor won’t prevent the film from being entertaining or from using humour: with “The New Prehistory”, we will walk alongside scientists in an awe-inspiring world where we will dodge out the way of the great predatory dinosaurs, duck from the flightpaths of dragonflies larger than seagulls and evade herds of huge feather-covered T-Rexes!