MUMBAI: On 5 October 2005, one of the world's best loved and most enduring movie stars will be anxiously twiddling his claws and wondering if he still has the puff to blow out his birthday candles. The dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex will be 100 years old.
100 years ago the T-rex was named and announced to the world. UK pubcaster BBC One celebrates his life from his unearthing by Barnum Brown in the Badlands of Montana to the launch of his career in the silent movies of the Twenties and ultimate monster stardom in Jurassic Park. Using a combination of state of the art computer generated images, stunning archive film, quirky dramatic reconstructions and frequently surprising interviews, T-rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood tells the life story of the Tyrant Lizard King.
Skipping over the rather boring 65 million years that it took T-rex to get noticed the film traces his story from awe inspiring museum exhibit to his journey towards becoming a Hollywood megastar. The programme features three palaeontologists, co-stars, directors, and some occasionally bitter rivals – including King Kong. This warts-and-all, kiss-and-tell biopic that will ruffle a few feathers as it builds to the climatic scene in which we see, for the first time ever in the history of the world, T- rex sporting lots of feathers.
T-rex is one of the most versatile actors around. As well as monster movies he has starred in comedies Caveman!, action films Jurassic Park, cowboy movies Valley of the Gwangi, sci-fi Galaxy of the Dinosaurs and cartoons Fantasia.
During his career T-rex has worked with such luminary directors as Steven Spielberg, Ray Harryhausen, Walt Disney and Willis O'Brien. He has acted opposite Richard Attenborough, Superman, Mickey Mouse, Ringo Starr and Fay Wray.
In order to film a bedroom scene between two passionate T-rexs you need to build a bed at least six metres long, 14 metres wide and capable of supporting 10 tonnes in weight. However, kissing scenes are definitely out as T-rex could not pucker its lips.