Sinking Ship Entertainment is in production on its second feature film, Dino Dana: The Movie.

Written by Sinking Ship’s J.J. Johnson and Christin Simms, and directed by Johnson, the film is based on the prodco’s TV property about a young girl who is training to become a paleontologist. Starring Michela Luci and Saara Chaudry, the film follows Dana as she tries to save her new neighbour after he is dino-napped by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The project is produced with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada (a first for a Sinking Ship project) and in association with Amazon Prime and TVOkids. The TV version of the property airs on TVO in Canada and streams on Amazon Prime in the U.S.

Currently filming in Toronto, the film is scheduled for a North American theatrical release in late-2019 or early-2020. Sinking Ship is handling theatrical distribution of the film in both the U.S. and Canada. A museum release is also planned, with Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum and Alberta’s Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology also on board to screen the film.

Executive producers are Johnson, Simms, Blair Powers and Matt Bishop.

The original incarnation of the dinosaur property, Dino Dan, was launched in 2008 on TVOkids and Nickelodeon. Sinking Ship later, in 2017, reimagined the series with a female lead character, Dana. The franchise’s YouTube channel has more than 58,000 subscribers and around 111 million views in total. The companion apps for both Dino Dan and Dino Dana have been downloaded more than 660,000 times, according to Sinking Ship.

The Toronto prodco previously entered the feature film market in 2016 with the release of Odd Squad: The Movie. The film received a 90-screen national release via a partnership with Cineplex Entertainment.