Bambi lives. Betting that multiplex audiences are hungry for lavish nature documentaries, the Walt Disney Company has established a new production banner to deliver two nature films a year starting in 2009. The effort, to be called Disney-Nature, reflects efforts by Disney to spur growth at its film unit after a retrenchment in 2006. Disney's chief executive, Robert A. Iger, said the success of “March of the Penguins” – a 2005 documentary from Warner Independent that cost $3 million to make and sold $127.4 million in tickets worldwide – helped spark the company's interest in the genre. He also said that “Planet Earth,” the recent mini-series from the Discovery Channel and the British Broadcasting Company, delivered blockbuster television ratings. “We were blown away by that TV series and we wished the Disney name was on it,” Mr. Iger said in an interview. As part of a corporate revamping in 2006, Disney reduced the number of movies it released each year to about 12, from as many as 20, and started marketing them almost entirely under a single brand, Walt Disney Pictures. Putting the Disney logo more front and center, the company figured, would enhance the global marketing of its movies. Mr. Iger is betting the Disney brand will deliver the same halo effect in the nature genre. There is a degree of risk involved; a decade ago, the company approached straight-to-DVD animated sequels with much the same attitude, only to be harshly criticized when quality faltered. Disney hopes that nature's broad appeal will help the studio expand overseas. The company's films have long been successful in foreign countries, but Disney faces cultural barriers in some developing markets like China and India. Nature documentaries, with film gathered from around the globe, cross borders much more easily. The initiative holds strategic importance for the company beyond the box office. Mr. Iger said the company's consumer products unit would probably develop a line of “beautiful books” based on Disney-Nature films. Nature sells well on DVD. And the theme parks unit could develop attractions built around 3-D nature films. Richard Cook, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said the venture was a type of revival of True-Life Adventures, a long-dormant division dedicated to educational films like “Beaver Valley,” a documentary Oscar winner from 1950. Disney Nature will be based outside Paris and run by Jean-François Camilleri, who has recently served as general manager of Walt Disney Motion Pictures France. The logo for the new unit is an iceberg shaped like the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. Mr. Iger declined to specify costs. “The films will cost enough to deliver the type of quality our customers expect, but less than a typical feature,” he said. They certainly sound expensive. Crews will spend three years in the Ivory Coast jungle to prepare “Chimpanzee,” to be released in 2012. “Oceans,” set for a 2010 release, will rely on new technology to film underwater drama with precision. The unit's first movie, “Earth,” from the producer behind the “Planet Earth” series, will be released on April 22, 2009. __
