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Film showcases 3D and CGI technology to immerse audiences in a prehistoric world.

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(Los Angeles) From ancient to modern times, there has been speculation that there were once "flying monsters" – huge reptiles with wingspans bigger than anything on the planet today. But could creatures this extraordinary really have existed? On October 7, 2011, the California Science Center IMAX Theater will explore this question and more with the opening of Flying Monsters 3D, a new adventure film from Atlantic Productions, in association with Sky 3D, and distributed by National Geographic Entertainment. The film uses 3D and CGI technology to immerse movie-goers into a prehistoric world inhabited by pterosaurs, flying vertebrates with a wingspan of up to 45 feet. Flying Monsters 3D was produced by filmmaker Anthony Geffen and narrated by renowned naturalist, Sir David Attenborough.

"3D is a wonderful way of seeing the world as the pterosaurs did," said Attenborough. "Pterosaurs are the most unlikely of creatures, but they dominated the skies for millions of years, and now this film will enable us to fly in 3D with them, the largest flying creatures the world has ever known."

Two hundred and twenty million years ago, dinosaurs were beginning their domination of Earth. But another group of reptiles was about to make an astonishing leap: Pterosaurs were taking control of the skies. The story of how and why these creatures took to the air is more fantastical than any fiction – and one of the greatest mysteries in paleontology. How did lizards the size of giraffes defy gravity and soar through prehistoric skies? Driven by the information he finds as he attempts to answer these questions, Attenborough starts to unravel one of science's more enduring questions, discovering that the marvel of pterosaur flight has evolutionary echoes that resonate even today.

Applying the same state-of-the-art 3D CGI technology that was used in Avatar, Flying Monsters 3D also employs pioneering scientific techniques that reveal new details about pterosaurs. The groundbreaking film is already earning accolades, including an award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and a nomination for Best 3D Program by the 2011 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

From discovering pterosaur embryos that show they might have flown from birth to figuring out how a creature the size of a giraffe could possibly fly, Flying Monsters 3D examines questions that have intrigued scientists for more than two centuries.

"It's almost as if this animated 3D technology was created to tell our story. With a pterosaur's eye-view of a hyper-real prehistoric Earth in 3D CGI, our audience will see the challenges of survival, including courtship, flying and hunting," said Geffen.

Schedule as of October 7, 2011:

Flying Monsters 3D – 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m.
Born to be Wild 3D – 11:30 a.m. & 3:30 p.m.
Arabia 3D – 1:30 p.m. plus an additional show at 5:30 p.m. Saturday & Sunday only

Resources:

http://www.flyingmonsters-movie.com

http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/