Press Release

September 18, 2008
Contact: Robert Hicks (512) 936-4600, robert.hicks@TheStoryofTexas.com

A SPECTACULAR UNDERWATER ADVENTURE WHERE AFRICA MEETS THE SEA AS WILD OCEAN 3D OPENS ON SEPTEMBER 26, 2008 AT THE BOB BULLOCK TEXAS STATE HISTORY MUSEUM

Austin, TX -- Wild Ocean 3D highlights one of nature’s greatest migration spectacles, plunging viewers into an underwater feeding frenzy, an epic struggle for survival where whales, sharks, dolphins, seals, gannets and billions of fish collide with the most voracious sea predator, mankind.

Filmed off the Wild Coast of South Africa and set to the rhythm of the local people, Wild Ocean 3D reveals the economic and cultural impact of the ocean while celebrating the communal efforts to protect our invaluable marine resources.

The film chronicles a massive annual feeding frenzy; billions of sardines travel up the KwaZulu-Natal shoreline, known to locals as the Wild Coast. For the people living along the African shore, this migration has provided a food source for countless generations while farther out at sea ocean predators come from great distances to feast.

Bottlenose dolphins create superpods, thousands strong, to track down the huge shoals using sonar. Sharks sense blood in the water and join the hunt. Seals and common dolphins chase the fish from cooler currents up the coast into the warmer tropical waters. Diving birds, Cape Gannets, join the battle with aerial attacks from the sky. All of these animals are drawn to the scene, enmeshed in one of the most incredible mass feeding melees in the natural world.

Unfortunately, such a richness of life is now rare in our seas. For centuries the ocean was considered a vast limitless resource. As fishing practices grew more industrialized and efficient throughout the 20th century, entire fish stocks around North America, Europe, and Asia began to collapse.

The fish, hauled onto boats by the ton, were an integral part of a complex marine ecosystem, a link in a great food chain on which many predators depend. Eventually, entire fish species were decimated and the ocean predator populations went into a steep decline. Now a new threat, global climate change, threatens to further damage the fragile ocean ecology.

While Wild Ocean 3D explores the causes and effects of man’s impact, it an inspirational film looking toward a bright future, taking audiences to a rare unspoiled marine wilderness to glimpse what the oceans of the world once looked like. The film champions the creation of marine reserves necessary to bring our oceans back to life. South Africa leads the way. It is a film about the people that come together to protect our world. Hope is alive on the Wild Coast, where Africa meets the sea.

Wild Ocean 3D is a production of Giant Screen Films and Yes/No Productions. The film is written and directed by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, the Academy Award nominated creators of the international sensation STOMP. Cresswell and McNicholas have previously teamed with Giant Screen Films on the award-winning giant-screen film, Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey. Photography is by award winning director of photography, Reed Smoot with underwater photography by D.J. Roller. Original music by Cresswell and McNicholas with sound design and mix by Mike Roberts and Brian Eimer. Check out the official website at www.wildoceanfilm.com

Wild Ocean 3D, opens at the IMAX Theatre of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum on September 26, 2008. Ticket prices are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors/military/students (with college ID) and $5 for youths age 18 and under. The IMAX Theatre is located in the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum at 1800 N. Congress Avenue at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

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