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Thunder
House Pictures
Tackles Large Format
For
Immediate Release - 12/16/02
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The
Duncan Group, a Midwest-based film and television production
company, is pleased to announce the creation of Thunder
House Pictures, a new company designed to develop large
format film productions.
The
principals for Thunder House Pictures are veteran filmmaker
Chip Duncan and Robert Kendall, president of Wisconsin-based
COLE Publishing. Susie Bertran of The Duncan Group will
oversee development and fundraising. The company will operate
from The Duncan Group headquarters at 777 N. Jefferson St.
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Thunder
House Pictures plans to develop large format productions
with an emphasis toward entertaining, majestic stories featuring
wildlife, adventure, and the triumph of the human spirit.
An educational component will add significantly to each
production.
"Audiences
love the large format experience," says founding partner
Bob Kendall. "And the style of storytelling is well
suited to The Duncan Group's history of creating entertaining
and adventurous non-fiction as well as their ability to
work in the world's most challenging locations.
"It's
our goal to develop two to three films each year. Large
format theaters like those found at museums around the country
provide an opportunity to entertain and educate viewers
that's become a rarity in the current television marketplace.
It also creates an opportunity to explore powerful stories
and to work with some of the finest filmmakers in the world
today."
Thunder House Pictures begins development with two high profile
projects including The Great Butterfly Quest and The Forgotten Expedition
- The True Story of Ruth Robertson & Angel Falls.
The Great Butterfly Quest is currently being developed by renowned
writer-director Kevin McCarey. The Great Butterfly Hunt will take
viewers on a perilous journey to the rooftop of the world - the
Himalayan and Karakoram mountains - in search of the world's most
elusive and beautiful butterflies. The film will employ state-of-the-art
macro and slow-motion photography and CG computer graphic effects
to reveal the hidden world of butterfly behavior with stunning visuals
never before seen on the Giant Screen.
McCarey
is an EMMY and Peabody award-winning writer-director. His
numerous credits for National Geographic Film and Television
- where he recently served as Supervising Producer - include
Tigers of the Snow, Sea Monsters, Africa's Savage Oasis
and Storm of the Century. McCarey has also been involved
in developing large format films on dolphins, Florida's
Everglades and Teddy Roosevelt's dangerous expedition down
Brazil's River of Doubt. "I've wanted to work with
The Duncan Group for years," says McCarey. "They
make entertaining films with an I.Q. - absolutely quality
work - and that's important to me."
"Kevin
McCarey is considered one of America's top non-fiction writer-directors,"
says Duncan. "He's constantly striving to break new
creative ground and will bring some exciting innovations
as well as great passion to what we hope to accomplish with
Thunder House Pictures."
The
Forgotten Expedition tells the story behind the first successful
mapping of Venezuela's Angel Falls. In 1949, American Ruth
Robertson succeeded where men had repeatedly failed. After
four male-led expeditions backed by large institutions such
as the Royal Geographic Society and the National Geographic
Society, Ruth put together a group of friends and native
guides to lead the way through the dense jungle. They were
the first to succeed in mapping Angel Falls and proving
that it is, indeed, the world's highest waterfall. A photojournalist
by trade, Robertson captured her expedition with more than
400 original kodachrome slides and an extensive journal.
Her success story was later featured in a 1949 edition of
National Geographic Magazine. Yet perhaps because of chauvinism
or jealousy, Ruth Robertson never achieved the celebrity
status of many of her male peers.
"I've
been working on Ruth Robertson's story for nearly a decade,"
says Duncan. "She's exactly the type of courageous,
visionary, and independent leader who we so often find at
the core of great adventure stories. To re-trace Ruth's
expedition to Angel Falls will be to walk in the footprints
of a giant."
Voted
"Best New Wildlife Filmmaker" at the 1993 Jackson
Hole Wildlife Festival for his production of Alaska's Bald
Eagle: New Threats to Survival (Discovery Channel, 1993),
Chip Duncan has distinguished himself with numerous documentary
projects including The Magic Never Ends - The Life &
Work of C.S. Lewis (PBS, 2002), Rafting Alaska's Wildest
Rivers (PBS, 2001), Wisconsin - An American Portrait (PBS,
2000), and the Mystic Lands series (TLC/Discovery Networks,
1996). Duncan has also produced or executive produced several
feature films including Eden (1996 Sundance Film Festival
Finalist), Row Your Boat featuring Jon Bon Jovi, and The
Break Up with Bridget Fonda and Kiefer Sutherland (Showtime,
1998). In addition to his development work for Thunder House
Pictures, Duncan is currently editing Kingdom In The Clouds
- A Pilgrimage to Machu Picchu and directing post production
of In A Just World - Contraception, Abortion & Family
Planning (a co-production with WTTW-Chicago).
For
more information on Thunder House Pictures or its current
projects in development, please contact The Duncan Group
at (USA) 414-223-1060. Digital images are available upon
request.
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