Disney launches nature film label
 

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The Disney Company has unveiled a new specialist film unit dedicated to producing wildlife and environmental documentaries for the big screen.

Disneynature will launch next year with the US release of Earth, a film version of the BBC's Planet Earth TV series.

The label, which will release one film each year, will be run by France-based executive Jean-Francois Camilleri.

"Nature invents the most beautiful stories," he said. "Our role will be to tell them with passion and enthusiasm."

Camilleri played a key role in the development of French nature film March of the Penguins, which went on to win an Academy Award for best documentary.

'Grandeur'

Narrated by Star Wars actor James Earl Jones, Earth will be released in the US on 22 April 2009.

Alastair Fothergill, who produced Planet Earth for the BBC and The Discovery Channel, is working on new films about chimpanzees and "big cats" for the Disneynature label.

Other projects in development include documentaries about flamingoes, orang-utans and the world's oceans.

Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, said the label's goal was "to offer event films that will appeal to everyone who is captivated by the grandeur of nature".