Incredible First Look Video of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Live Stage Show
DreamWorks Animation is taking the story of How to Train You Dragon and turning it in a big awesome looking live stage show. The studio recently announced that they have teamed up with a live entertainment company called Global Creatures to produce the show, which will be called How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular. The show is scheduled to premiere in Australia in March of 2012. From there it will travel to New Zealand, eventually hitting the United States in June 2012. The show basically tells the story of the first film, but of course this version will be in a live-action setting that includes 80 cast members and 24 awesome animatronic dragons.
Thanks to io9 we have our first look at what this show will actually look like, and it looks pretty damn impressive. The dragons that they've developed are incredible. I think I'll actually make an effort to see this show when it makes it over to the U.S. Check it out and tell us what you think!
Here's some more information from the press release:
Global Creatures and its animatronic division, The Creature Technology Company are creating over 24 dragons for the show, including film favorites: Nadder, Gronckle, Nightmare, Toothless the Nightfury and Red Death, the single largest animatronic creature ever made by The Creature Technology Company.
The show builds on the success of live arena show Walking With Dinosaurs, which Global produced with the BBC in recent years.
Unveiling the deadly Nadder in Melbourne on Monday, DreamWorks Animation chief creative officer Bill Damaschke told The Hollywood Reporter that the show would be the first of its kind, featuring full scale, fire breathing dragons, projections, flying, stunts, circus performers and pyrotechnics.
“The complex animatronics, the cast of eighty including Viking warriors and villagers as well as world-class circus and acrobatic performers, all are quite ambitious,” he said of the $20 million-plus show thats been nearly five years in planning.
Following its March dates in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane the show will then travel to New Zealand then the U.S. in June, with plans underway to bring it to other markets.
“In our film, audiences around the world were transported to the mythical world of Vikings and dragons… and now, we are excited to immerse them in a one-of-a-kind live event in the How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular,”Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation CEO said in a statement.
“The innovative team at Global Creatures and the creative storytellers at DreamWorks Animation have done an inspired job in every imaginable way to present this story on an unprecedented scale that will take audiences to unforgettable new heights,” he added.
Director Nigel Jamieson has travelled twice around the world to cast the show, with key cast including the main Viking roles of Hiccup, Astrid, Stoick and Gobber to be announced shortly.
Global Creatures headed Australia’s Top 50 Entertainers list as compiled by business magazineBRW, with AUS$140 million ($150 million) in earnings last year in its debut on the list.
It created the Walking With Dinosaurs spectacular, which has toured globally with over 6.5 million admissions.
“We were inspired by the level of success of Walking With Dinosaurs and we believe that there’s a fascination with dragons and their mythology across cultures. We believe we can meet Walking With Dinosaurs level of success. With DreamWorks’ story telling and Global Creatures technology we’ll make a unique and new kind of live show,” Damaschke said.