Life on Our Planet

Life on Our Planet is our ground-breaking new 8-part series created by Silverback Films in association with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television - premiering on Netflix 25 October. Narrated by Academy Award®-winner Morgan Freeman, it’s the story of life’s epic battle to conquer and survive on planet Earth. Today there are 20 million species on our planet, yet what we see is just a snapshot in time – 99% of earth’s inhabitants are lost to our deep past.

In partnership with Industrial Light & Magic, we use the latest technology and science to bring long extinct creatures back to life, charting their remarkable rise and fall.

Organised around the five mass extinction events that have forever shaped the planet, plus the sixth we’re facing today, our series brings creatures known only from fossils to life in dramatic, photo-real fashion. These stunning scenes are presented alongside cutting-edge natural history sequences, showcasing the unique evolutionary advantages modern species have inherited from their ancestors in ways that have never been seen before.

“By understanding our past, we can help shape our future. The sixth mass extinction we’re currently living through is the first one created by an animal, and also the first one that can be averted completely.” - Silverback series producer Keith Scholey

Audiences will see the story of life unfold through its most pivotal moments: from the first single-celled life form, to the first animals to move out from the sea and onto land, to the first creatures to take flight. Revisiting one of Earth’s longest-lived dynasties, the dinosaurs, viewers will bear witness to the cataclysmic downfall that led to the age of the mammals and the rise of the most dangerous animal the earth has ever seen: us.

As it traces our lineage across this epic journey, Life on Our Planet underscores our unique status as the only species in the four billion-year story of life to understand what is happening to our world and what is needed to put it right. But whatever future awaits, the past reminds us that life has always found a way.

Life on Our Planet Credit: Netflix © 2023

View on Netflix here: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80213846

THE MAKING OF LIFE ON OUR PLANET

Across six years of planning and production, our series involved a crew of 440 people; visits to six continents; portrayals of 500 species (some still living and other extinct); 868 VFX shots; and 2,181 hours of footage filmed.

 

Narrator

Morgan Freeman

Composer

Lorne Balfe

Executive Producers for Silverback Films

Alastair Fothergill / Keith Scholey

Executive Producers for Amblin

Steven Spielberg / Darryl Frank / Justin Falvey

Series Producers for Silverback Films

Dan Tapster / Alastair Fothergill / Keith Scholey

Produced and Directed by 

Adam Chapman / Sophie Lanfear /  Barny Revill / Nick Shoolingin-Jordan/ Gisle Sverdrup

Visual Effects Supervisor for ILM

Jonathan Privett

VFX Executive Producer for ILM

Louise Hussey

Director of VFX Photography

Jamie McPherson

VFX Producer

Clare Tinsley

Edited by

Alex Boyle / Nigel Buck / Rob Davies/Andy Netley/ Dave Pearce / Sam Rogers  / Rupert Troskie

VFX Editors for Silverback Films

Charles Dyer

LIFE ON OUR PLANET

Line Producer

Fiona Marsh

Junior Production Manager

Stacey Hill

Production Coordinators

Lisa Connaire / Nicole Hobart / Anna Kington / Emily Jayne Turner

Production Management Assistant

Jasmine MacRae-Jones

Assistant Producers

Joe Fereday / David Heath / Katie Parsons / Helen Sampson / Jolyon Sutcliffe / Amy Thompson / Darren Williams / Loz Whittaker

Researchers

Edd Dyer / Bertie Allison / Ida-May Jones / Frank Jordan

Script Supervisor

Patrick Makin

Archive Specialist 

Debbie Williams

Archive Researcher

Harry James

Scientific Researcher

Dr. Tom Fletcher

Head of Technical Operations

Dan Clamp

Technical & Drone Manager

Darren Clementson

Senior Technical Lead & Workflow Supervisor

Sean Pearce

Edit Assistant

Owen Jenkins

Head of Production Finance

Rachel James

Assistant Production Accountant

Sarah Pimblett

Finance Coordinator

Lisa Baldwin

Finance and Payroll Team

Sarah Garner/ Judi Oborne / Beverley Booth / Lucy Mattock / Bev Aspinall

Opening Titles Design

Elastic

Director of Production

Jane Hamlin

Deputy Director of Production

Elly Salisbury

Production Executive

Jenni Collie

Legal and Business Affairs

Anna Keeling