Disneynature is the new film production unit that the Disney Company is setting up, dedicated exclusively to the making of wildlife and environmental documentaries for the big screen.

Disneynature will launch next year with the US release of “Earth,” a film version of the BBC’s “Planet Earth” television series. The film, which follows the yearlong journey of three mothers, a polar bear, elephant and humpback whale, with their offspring, narrated by actor James Earl Jones, will be released on Earth Day, April 22, 2009.

“Earth” will be produced by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media and co-directed by Mark Linfield, the Hollywood Reporter says.

Disneynature will produce and distribute documentary films through at least 2012. The label will be run by France-based executive Jean-Francois Camilleri. He has long been working with Disney, serving as senior vice president and general manager for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures France.

“Nature invents the most beautiful stories. Our role will be to tell them with passion and enthusiasm,” he said.

“By working with the best wildlife directors, we will offer nature as never seen before, help the audience to discover the incredible beauty of our world but also understand the challenges for the future generations,” Camilleri added.

Camilleri played a key role in the development of French nature film “March of the Penguins,” which went on to win an Academy Award for best documentary. The 2005 documentary about penguin families surviving in Antarctica grossed $127 million at the global box office but cost just $3 million to make, said Camilleri.

Alastair Fothergill, who produced “Planet Earth” for the BBC and The Discovery Channel, is working on new films about chimpanzees and “big cats” for the Disneynature label.

Other projects in development include “Naked Beauty: A Love Story That Feeds the Earth,” from filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg and producers Blacklight Films and Tidmarsh, which looks at flowers and their pollinators, a bat, a hummingbird, a butterfly and a bumblebee, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Future documentaries from the specialist film unit include “The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos,” which premieres in France in December, “Oceans” and “Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight.”