Primeval (film)

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Primeval
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Michael Katleman
Produced by	Gavin Polone
Written by	John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris
Starring	Dominic Purcell, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Jürgen Prochnow, Gideon Emery
Music by	John Frizzell
Cinematography	Edward J. Pei
Editing by	Gabriel Wrye
Distributed by	Hollywood Pictures
Release date(s)	12 January 2007
Country	USA
Language	English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Primeval is a 2007 adventure/thriller film, written by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris and directed by Michael Katleman. The film is inspired by the true story of Gustave, a 2,000 pound (907 kilograms), 6-meter-long crocodile in Lake Tanganyika, Burundi.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Promotion
3 Production
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about identity of the killer follow.

A team of newscasters travel to South Africa's Azizi and Monguli rivers, searching for the notorious crocodile named "Gustave", which is thought to have killed over 300 fishermen and bathers in the river. The newscasters are trying to capture the beast, and learn more about it.

[edit] Promotion

The film's promotional trailer dubs Gustave a "serial killer", who has claimed more than 300 victims and "remains at large". It is compared to Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer with his non-human status never mentioned except for a brief line where the narrator says, "He's real, but he's not human." A shortened version of this trailer does not contain this at all. However, in the trailer, a crocodile, presumably Gustave, briefly flashes on screen. The promotional poster similarly calls Gustave "the most prolific serial killer in history". The film's official website rarely makes any mention that the killer is in fact a crocodile. It should be noted that although the story is about a real crocodile, the claim that it has killed 300 people is an exaggeration over the total number of reported deaths, which is around 110. Contrarily, the number of reported deaths is likely less than the true number of human deaths that can be attributed to the animal.

[edit] Production

Filming for the movie commenced in April 2006 in South Africa.

Released in theaters worldwide January 12, 2007.
Approximate running time is 96 minutes.
Another croc-horror film Rogue, directed by Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) had to be pushed back until fall 2007 because of the similarities between itself and Primeval.