Wild Bunch is going 3-D. The French sales, distribution and financing outfit will create a new label, Wild Bunch 3-D, under which 3-D films will be distributed and sold. The new arm is to kick off with Oceans 3-D Into The Deep from filmmaker brothers Jean-Jacques and Francois Mantello and presented by Jean-Michel Cousteau.

To mark the occasion, Wild Bunch will hold promo-reel screenings at Berlin replete with special spectacles for optimum viewing. The film follows the journey of a female sea turtle as she heads back to her birthplace in order to lay her eggs. On the voyage, the sea turtle encounters myriad species and ecosystems which come to life for the audience.

The $13m film -the first feature-length docu-fiction film shot entirely in Digital 3D - will be completed by the end of April and could see a special screening in Cannes. It will be released on about 60 prints in France this summer, Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval told Screen.

Wild Bunch 3-D will aim to propose one 3-D title per major market and will also encourage independent filmmakers to embrace the new trend. ‘We want to develop an independent expertise in 3-D and not leave it to the studios. We have asked all of our producers to develop 3-D films,’ Maraval says, effusing, ‘When you see these movies you say ‘wow, people will come back to the cinemas.’ It’s the same revolution as going from black-and-white to color.’

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