Eight Below

Frank Marshall’s film is a remake. Its source is Antarctica, the 1983 Japanese film by Koreyoshi Kurahara, and it was dedicated to Kurahara’s memory; he died in 2002. Behind both films is the 1958 Japanese Antarctic expedition. At Showa station 15 sled dogs were left chained; seven died on the chain, six were never recovered, and two brothers, Taro and Jiro, survived. The screenplay moves that to 1993 and an American base, cuts the dogs to eight and brings six home. Two Alaskan malamutes and six Siberian huskies play the eight canine characters, with more than 30 dogs used on set in all. The story is set in Antarctica but was shot in Svalbard, Greenland and British Columbia. Its first title was Antarctica: The Journey Home. It opened at number one in the United States and took 120.5 million dollars worldwide on a 40 million dollar budget. A 2013 Hollywood Reporter investigation reported that a trainer punched one of the dogs on set while breaking up a fight; the credits still carry the line that no animals were harmed. A good fit if you are curious how a real animal story gets rebuilt on screen. Not for anyone who knows Antarctica: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic wrote that midwinter scenes play in broad daylight while the continent is in darkness.