Gov. Rick Scott announces $5 million of state funds will go towards filming a sequel to Dolphin Tale
CLEARWATER --
Gov. Rick Scott announced on Friday afternoon that there will be a sequel to Dolphin Tale.
Scott announced the deal at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium on Friday stating that $5 million of state funds will go to funding the film.
The entire cast of Dolphin Tale including Harry Connick Jr., Oscar winner Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd will reunite for the sequel. Charles Martin Smith has written the screenplay and will direct the film again.
"The odds are we'll get a great return on investment," said Gov. Scott.
Fans of Winter the Dolphin that swims with a prosthetic tail will get to see her again on the big screen.
"We have a sequel guys. Is that cool or what?,” said David Yates, CEO of Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
Filming will begin in Clearwater in October and Distributor Warner Bros is setting September 19, 2014 release date.
"The story is basically picking up Winter's life story and weaving some more real life elements we did not tell Dolphin Tale itself. With one of those key elements being the life story of the dolphin named Hope," said Yates.
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Although it was not made to handle the crowds that the first movie generated. They had tents, rope lines and porta-potties (very clean ones, on trailers, had A/C) in their parking area and much of the building did not allow for two-way traffic of people, so the lines had to double-back. They had a bus tour that took you around to the various sites the movie was filmed at, but we didn't go on it. It was very educational for our son (he's tossing around the idea of studying some kind of animal care), and was not a 'commercial' aquarium, but a rehabilitative, working one -- that could definitely use any money they receive to be put to use on some basic maintenance. It seemed that there were not enough employees to run tours, answer questions and keep some of the lesser animal exhibits squeaky clean. But all questions were answered. The staff was great and welcomed interaction from the tour members and children.
Some thoughts that came to mind once we got inside - dingy, a bit sad -- but the work they were doing with/for disabled animals is pretty amazing - otters, dolphins, pelicans, sea turtles (one with a 'balast' problem), manatees.
In another part of FL, the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, must have much more funding behind them. It was sparkling, but not very much interaction between any of the staff and the tourists. It might just be the difference between the population/donors in Clearwater vs Sarasota. Clearwater was a much more personable aquarium to go to with great interaction. Mote was interesting because it had a great bird display before even getting into the aquarium. Atlanta was awesome because of the whalesharks and the manta rays. It was an interesting trip last year!
