MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Penguins, subject of box office hit documentary

Antarctic Emperor Penguins have become this year's unlikely Hollywood superstars as the documentary ?March of the Penguins' takes cinemas by storm.

The film, directed by French filmmaker Luc Jacquet, cost a mere £4.5 million to make and is currently outperforming Steven Spielberg's latest £100 million offering ?War of the Worlds' at the box office.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the film about the life of the penguins in the harsh Antarctic environment is expected to become the most successful independent film of all time, beating current number one, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which grossed £100 million worldwide.

With the poster tag line, "In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way," the film follows an Emperor colony for a year, charting their quest to mate and how they live once this has been accomplished.

Director Luc Jacquet lived with the colony with two other cameramen for 13 months collecting footage at the French Antarctic research station in Adelie. Jacquet told the Mail: "It got to the point where, when it was minus four degrees, it felt like a sunny day. It took me a year to re-acclimatize. We all got burned and we all got frostbite. We lived with the penguins and learned to love them. Because there has been a research station in Antarctica for 50 years, the penguins were used to seeing men in orange jump suits.

"The penguins spend so much energy merely staying alive in this place at the edge of existence that they didn't waste any energy on us. A female checked us out during mating season but when she realised we weren't penguins, she headed back off across the ice."

The film's success has been attributed to the emotional attachment the viewer inevitably forms with the birds, coupled with its wide appeal.

One cinema manager in Los Angeles said, "This film is cutting across all demographics: it's a date movie, a young person's movie, an over 45s movie.

"There is one scene where a mother bird begins to wail after discovering her chick is dead. People just sob their hearts out. It is impossible not to put human emotions on to these animals. It is heartbreaking, funny, poignant and a wonderful love story; the sort of movie you just don't see any more."

Time Magazine said, "There is more drama and heartache in ?March of the Penguins' than in most movies that are actually scripted to tug our feelings".

Source: Penguin News? Falkland Islands