Awesome show as dinos reborn; Terrifying beasts to walk among 21st century audiences in Birmingham.

Byline: Martin Hutchinson

DINOSAURS will once again walk the earth in a spectacular theatrical arena show coming to Birmingham next week.

Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular is based on the award-winning BBC TV series and promises to be one of the most exciting and groundbreaking shows ever seen in the city.

It runs at the NIA from August 12 - August 16.

Carmen Pavlovic, from show creators the Australian Creature Production Company says: "The BBC series was a brilliant blend of special effects, escapism and information. Our production brings together all of that, plus something extra - it's live!

"In this production, 15 roaring, snarling 'live' dinosaurs mesmerise the audience - and are as aweinspiring as when they first walked on earth."

The show is immense and with the dinosaurs being life-size, it could only be done in an arena setting.

It cost pounds 10 million to stage and Pavlovic explains: "We really believe we have created a new genre in entertainment which captivates young and old alike."

The original TV series won six Emmy and three BAFTA Awards and the creator/producer Tim Haines serves as Project Consult-anto the show.

He says: "At its core, the Arena Spectacular manages to do what the TV series did so successfully, which is to make people imagine they are looking at real dinosaurs."

The show has broken box office records around the world. In America it has generated $110 million in ticket sales and has been seen by a worldwide audience of three million people.

It is directed by Scott Faris, a Broadway veteran who has in the past has worked alongside Trevor Nunn.

Each large dinosaur weighs about the same as a standard family car, uses 53 gallons of paint, 971 square feet of fabric and takes three people (a driver and two puppeteers) to operate.

Scott says: "Because of the detail that has gone into the show, our dinosaurs move exactly as if they were real. The realism is mindblowing!" Sonny Tilders, who was responsible for designing and building the creatures, has been a major creative force in the world of animatronics for film and television for a decade.

He's worked on movies like Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith, Peter Pan and The Chronicles of Narnia.

He explains: "Many of the technologies we are using in the show are borrowed from film. The com-putesoftware and hardware we have developed is based on the systems used to control animatronics creatures in feature films."

The show itself takes us through the evolution of the giant beasts, from their first existence through to their extinction.

We are joined on this journey by the narrator Huxley, an enthusiastic palaeontologist who is on hand with information about what we are seeing.

There will be an Allosaurus, a Stegosaurus and a mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex amongst the 15 creatures we will see throughout their 200 million year reign as masters of the planet.

The largest of the dinosaurs is the giant Brachiosaurus, which is 36 feet tall and 56 feet long. The history of the world is played out with the splitting of the continents, the transition from the desert world of the Triassic period to the lush Jurassic period - all leading up to the impact of the massive comet, 65 million years ago which wiped out the dinosaurs.

TicketInfo

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS August 12-16: NIA Tickets: pounds 35, pounds 30 and pounds 20, plus booking fee, from 0844 338 8000 or at www.theticketfactory.com

CAPTION(S):

Everybody walk the dinosaur: Above, some of the prehistoric beasts which feature in the Walking With Dinosaurs arena spectacular which is coming to Birmingham next week. Below, the show's artistic director Scott Faris among some of the creatures he helped painstakingly bring to life.