Christal Films marked Earth Day ahead of schedule, closing a trio of deals late last week for environmental-themed features from the BBC and Canada. Christal has picked up Earth, the theatrical companion piece to the BBC series Planet Earth, FierceLight: When Spirit Meets Action by Velcrow Ripper and The Green Chain by Canadian first-timer Mark Leiren-Young.

Earth — set for U.S., U.K. and Australian theaters this fall through Lionsgate — comes from director Alastair Fothergill (Deep Blue), BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media. It runs 90 minutes and follows the migratory travels of a humpback whale, a polar bear and an elephant.

Its release will be followed by Leiren-Young’s The Green Chain, due in late 2007 or ’08, from Toronto’s Middle Child Films, and producers Donna Wong-Juliani and Tony Wosk. The story, by Leiren-Young (Blood Ties, Pucca) recounts a battle between loggers and activists and stars Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), August Schellenberg (The New World) and Brendan Fletcher (Tideland).

Christal says it will put FierceLight on screens in mid-2008. Ripper (ScaredSacred) and exec producers Mark Achbar (The Corporation) and Betsy Carson (Fix: The Story of an Addicted City) follow the ‘spiritual activism’ movement around the world and is coproduced with the National Film Board.