THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
THE GANG OF filmmakers at the Oceanfront brought you mummies from ancient Egypt, killer earthquakes from the Bible and Bronze Age cities entombed by volcanic eruptions.
Tonight at 8, New Dominion Pictures puts something different on cable television - the creepy, scary primeval Earth of ``PaleoWorld.''
It's a series on The Learning Channel about creatures from 230 million years ago, give or take a million, with a vicious attitude and teeth and claws to match. I'm talking dinosaurs here.
Executive producer Tom Naughton had film crews on six continents working 175 days to gather the raw material for 13 episodes of ``PaleoWorld.'' The premiere episode - ``Rise of the Predators'' - will be on at 8 and 11 tonight as well as at 9 p.m. and midnight Sunday.
When it came to creating special effects for ``PaleoWorld,'' Naughton didn't have anywhere near the budget at the disposal of Steven Spielberg for ``Jurassic Park.'' But don't let that put you off. ``PaleoWorld'' is pretty sophisticated stuff with a high-tech three-dimensional look.
To help the story along, robots and skeletons pop up on screen.
The 16-foot-long opiacadon, pterosaurs with a wingspan of 40 feet, and tyrannosaurus rex, which had teeth the size of bananas, look real enough thanks to the people who create robotics at Dinamation International Corp. of Irvine, Calif.
Speaking of teeth, Naughton said ``PaleoWorld'' is TV you can sink your choppers into. ``We're investigating topics about ancient creatures of land and sea that have been rarely explored, and presenting them in a fast-paced, dynamic style.''
There's a Cable Ace award in the reception area of New Dominion Pictures' offices on Pacific Avenue in Virginia Beach. That's for the local company's good work in producing the ``Archaeology'' series for TLC.
``Archaeology'' returned this week for another season on cable. Learn what Egyptians ate before they became mummies.
The two shows represent a $4 million-a-year enterprise, said Naughton. With all of this going on, and with the programming coming out of the Christian Broadcasting Network and The Family Channel, is it stretching things to call Virginia Beach Hollywood East? Well, maybe just a little bit.
From his corner office in Virginia Beach, Naughton dispatches film crews around the world - as many as eight at one time. ``We intend to continue to grow and develop as a company,'' Naughton said, dropping hints of more TV series to come and perhaps feature films.
New Dominion Pictures has 25 full-time employees on the payroll in Virginia Beach and uses more than 100 others on a freelance basis. In producing ``PaleoWorld,'' Naughton also contracted for local talent, including Anim8 Inc. and Earworks Digital Audio.
Digging around in man's dusty past for ``Archaeology'' was a piece of cake compared to the research necessary for ``PaleoWorld,'' said Naughton. ``We had to go into what we call deep time, when there were no humans on Earth. That was a challenge. For this series, you take a tooth or claw and build on that.''
And they built well. ``PaleoWorld'' is no sleeping pill.
Who could fall asleep watching dinosaurs cut and slash their way through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, anyway?
``Dinosaurs were popular years before `Jurassic Park' was made, and they will be just popular 20 years from now,'' said Naughton.
Popular, yes. But lovable? Never.
The first 13 weeks of ``PaleoWorld'' concludes with an episode about the extinction of the dinosaurs. What caused the sudden and dramatic shift in the Earth's climate that eventually ended the day of the dinosaurs?
As you read this, Naughton and his staff at New Dominion Pictures down at the Oceanfront are working with experts to develop answers. And you thought Virginia Beach was just for sun, surf and sand. by CNB