LOS ANGELES — The sweeping documentary series “Planet Earth” is getting a sequel.
“Our Planet” will focus on the Earth’s last wilderness areas and the animals living there, the project’s British producers said Wednesday.
The filmmakers said they plan to use the latest digital camera technology as they venture from the planet’s ice caps to ocean depths to deserts and remote forests.
Audiences will have to be patient: The eight-part series will take four years to make and is planned for a 2019 debut for Netflix customers internationally.
“Our Planet” is being produced by U.K.-based Silverback Films in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund, an independent conservation group. Silverback company directors Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, whose credits include “Frozen Planet” and “African Cats” as well as “Planet Earth,” will lead the production.
“We will reveal the most amazing sights on Earth and show them in ways they have never been seen before,” Fothergill and Scholey promised in a statement. The series is intended to wow “global audiences with the wonder and importance of the natural world,” they said.
World Wildlife Fund is opening its projects in protected areas to Silverback Films and will join with the company to create multimedia storytelling on WWF’s website and other platforms.
The series will introduce viewers to fragile habitats and “precious species” and comes at a critical time for global conservation, said Colin Butfield, WWF executive producer.
It also demonstrates the growing power of new-wave TV outlets like Netflix, which are claiming turf from traditional broadcast and cable outlets. “Our Planet” predecessor “Planet Earth” was created by Silverback for the BBC network in Britain and was a hit for Discovery channel in America when it aired in 2007.
— Lynn Elber
Associated Press
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