The film was produced by BBC Earth and Evergreen Films and was named after BBC's 1999 television documentary miniseries. The film, with a budget of US$80 million, was one of the largest independent productions to date; it was financed by Big Reliance Entertainment and IM Global instead of a major studio. The majority of distribution rights were eventually sold to 20th Century Fox. The crew filmed footage on location in the U.S. state of Alaska and in New Zealand, which were chosen for their similarities to the dinosaurs' surroundings millions of years ago. Animal Logic designed computer-animated dinosaurs and added them to the live-action backdrop. Though the film was originally going to have a narrator like in the miniseries, 20th Century Fox executives decided to add voiceovers, believin