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Documentary Dinosaur 13 depicts the event of 1990, when American fossil hunter Pete Larson and his team discovered the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found while digging in the badlands of South Dakota. However the skeleton was seized from Larson by the federal government. What followed was a ten-year long battle with the FBI, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Maurice Williams, the landowner on whose property the bones were discovered. With the film due for release on DVD by Dogwoof on January 12th, we posed 10 questions to its director, Todd Miller… Plus read on for a special competition!

1) So Todd, give us the lowdown on why you decided to make Dinosaur 13

I read the book Rex Appeal, which was written by Pete Larson (the paleontologist) and Kristin Donnan. I became fascinated by the story and saw that it was written in a cinematic...

Soon after premiering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival "Dinosaur 13" was the first deal closed.The film then was exhibited at festivals and in theaters throughout the country. "Dinosaur 13" will make its global television premiere on CNN/U.S. Tonight, Dec. 11 at 9:00pm Pst and 11:00pm Est.

When paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute made one of the world’s greatest dinosaur discoveries in 1990, they knew it was the discovery of a lifetime — the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found. The dinosaur quickly became known to the world as ‘Sue,’ named after amateur paleontologist, Susan Hendrickson, who located the first fossil fragments of the historic find.

“We are honored to be sharing this amazing story of scientific discovery with CNN’s audience. CNN Films’ multiple platform approach is the perfect fit for this story – and the type of films we plan to produce,” said award-winning filmmaker Todd Douglas Miller.

Larson recalls the exhilaration of the find, and of toiling in more than 100°F to recover the skeleton before it could be damaged by weather, oxidation, and other forces of erosion: “We all wanted to see what the skeleton was going to look like,” Larson says in the film.

“It was – it still is today – the most exciting, the most wonderful excavation – the most incredible thing we have ever done,” his brother, Neal Larson echoes.

Through interviews with the principal players in the story that unfolds, Miller portrays what happened next. Shortly after the excavation, a ten-year battle ensued with the U.S. government, powerful museums, Native American communities, and competing paleontologists over the legal custody of Sue.

Academic paleontologists were outraged that a historic find would be planned for exhibition at a commercial facility (the Black Hills Institute), Native American communities filed complaints that the find was improperly removed from land that belonged to them. And, in an unusual argument, the federal government requested nullification of the sale of the prospect rights for the fossil by the landowner, who now also argued that he had never intended to sell Sue to Larson.

In the government’s view, the fossil had become land, making it inappropriate to transport, attempt to auction, or purchase Sue without legal standing. Larson and his crew soon found themselves fighting for their own freedom.

After tonight "Dinosaur 13" will be available in simulcast via CNNgo by logging in with a TV provider username and password on CNN’s iPad app or at www.CNN.com/go. The film will encore on CNN on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 9:00pm and 11:00pm Est.

The next CNN Films broadcast premiere will be "Life Itself", a biographical profile of renowned film critic Roger Ebert, which has been shortlisted among 15 other films to compete for the Academy Award in the Best Feature Documentary category.

For more information about "Dinosaur 13" please visit www.cnn.com/dinosaur13.

About CNN Films

CNN Films produces and acquires documentary feature films for theatrical exhibition and distribution across CNN’s multiple platforms. Amy Entelis, svp of talent and content development and Vinnie Malhotra, svp of development and acquisitions, oversee the strategy for CNN Films. For more information about CNN Films, please visit www.cnn.com/CNNFilms and follow [At]CNNFilms via Twitter.

About CNN

CNN Worldwide is a portfolio of two dozen news and information services across cable, satellite, radio, wireless devices and the Internet in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Domestically, CNN reaches more individuals on television, the web and mobile devices than any other cable TV news organization in the United States; internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 271 million households abroad; and CNN Digital is a top network for online news, mobile news and social media. Additionally, CNN Newsource is the world’s most extensively utilized news service partnering with hundreds of local and international news organizations around the world. CNN is division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company.

Chicago – Only in America can an animal die millions of years ago, have its fossilized bones discovered in the 20th Century, and end up in a court of law, determining who she belongs to as if in a child custody case. The story of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found is chronicled in the new documentary “Dinosaur 13.”

The T-Rex in question is nicknamed Sue, named after her discover Susan Hendrickson, and now resides in the Field Museum of Chicago. Hendrickson was part of a fossil-hunting-for-profit team who uncovered Sue in 1990, only to have a location dispute put her ownership rights into litigation. This story is fascinating, from the viewpoint of what land ownership means, and who owns what is found on said lands. It also is a cautionary tale about messing with the U.S. government, because as this film rightly points out, they mostly use their law...

One of the most impressive things about “Dinosaur 13," Todd Miller’s moving documentary that premiered at Sundance and hits theaters August 15 from Lionsgate, is that it makes the audience realize -- and feel -- what it means to lose something incredibly important. A spouse? No. A child? Not quite. Over the film’s near two-hour running time, we come to understand that to paleontologist Peter Larson -- who with his team in 1990 discovered the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in archeological history, named it Sue, and then became embroiled in a lengthy, well, “custody” battle over her -- this dinosaur is a child he loves very much. He certainly grieves when he loses her. The doc begins in the badlands of South Dakota, where Sue was discovered by Larson’s teammate Susan Hendrickson (thus becoming the dino’s namesake). Using archival footage that would ultimately become instrumental in the court case,...

Chicago – When the skeletal remains of a long-lost animal is discovered and pulled from the earth, does anybody really own it? That is the question in the new documentary, “Dinosaur 13,” directed by Todd Miller. It’s the story of discovering those dinosaur bones and the implications for the person who exhumed them, Peter Larson.

“Dinosaur 13” ended up being “Sue” – named for the actual person who first saw the bones, Susan Hendrickson – the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen ever discovered. Sue now resides in the Field Museum in Chicago, but her journey to the final resting place was fraught with the 20th Century notion of who owned her. Director Todd Douglas Miller combines archival footage, news reports and re-creations to unfold the only-in-America story of the final journey to rest of a long dead creature.

Peter Larson Works on Sue Around the Time of Discovery in ‘Dinosaur 13’

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Ever since Jurassic Park exploded into the imaginations of kids everywhere in ‘93, there hasn’t been another film since that has sparked the same interest in our large, scaley (or feathery) friends, the dinosaurs. Not even Spielberg himself with Jp’s sequel, The Lost World, could match the same fervent love for Raptors and Tyrannosaurs that the original inspired. That is, until now; Dinosaur 13, an incredible new documentary, comes the closest to capturing the same childlike wonder and awe we feel when coming in contact with a creature from an almost entirely different planet, sixty-five millions years into the past – even if that contact is divided by a cinema screen. And it’s all because of a bunch of bones. Let’s go back in time – but not that far…

South Dakota, 1990. Paleontologist Pete Larson and his team discover the largest complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. The skeleton’s...

Miller Asks: Who’s Dinosaur Is It Anyways?

Before 1990, only twelve Tyrannosaurus Rex had ever been discovered. As you may have guessed, Dinosaur 13 documents the incredible discovery of Sue, the thirteenth and most complete specimen to date, by a commercial group of palaeontologists from South Dakota calling themselves the Black Hills Institute and the subsequent legal meltdown that followed shortly thereafter. Make no bones about it, Sue’s story is a naturally riveting tale of rock obsessed rebels caught in a real-estate netherworld where con men and power hungry institutions wield the power to ruin lives and bury dreams, but too soon the dino-hunting excitement and intrigue of this insular world is traded for the tedium of offscreen courtroom drama.

Todd Miller’s debut documentary begins with the sweeping propulsion of Matt Morton’s string compositions matched in perfect rhythm with footage shot by the Black Hills team on...

★★★☆☆The number thirteen certainly was unlucky for Peter Larson and his team of palaeontologists when they stumbled upon one of the great dinosaur finds in history - the remains of 'Sue', only the 13th Tyrannosaurs Rex to be found by 1990. What happened next was a David and Goliath battle between his small-town dinosaur institute and the might of the federal government, a parable of an American Dream undone by its own success documented in Todd Douglas Miller's Dinosaur 13 (2014). Larson and his Black Hills Institute meticulously unearthed the fossilised Rex - named after Sue Hendrickson, the digger who found her - and went about readying her for display at their South Dakota museum.

Paleontologists are part discoverers, part detectives. After the digging, the more difficult work lies in extrapolating meaning from the remains.

Todd Douglas Miller's Dinosaur 13 does half the job, excavating the ribs and joints of a story of how a team of paleontologists, led by Peter Larson, made an enormous find in 1990 — the most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered, nicknamed "Sue" — and then had their lives derailed by private back-dealing and government interference. Sue, we learn, was discovered on disputed land, and was later confiscated by the feds.

Unfortunately, Dinosaur 13 never manages to display the story's many complex parts in a way that enables viewers to grasp the whole beast, since it conflates Sue's travails with a se...

Ever wondered what dinosaur movies a real-life paleontologist watches when he's not studying dinosaurs? Well, today's your lucky day.

In honor of the release of his new documentary, "Dinosaur 13," renowned paleontologist Peter Larson (who, in 1990, led the excavation of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever found, "Sue," the subject of the documentary), shared with us his five favorite fictional movies about dinosaurs. This is a smart guy, so these picks really matter.

Larson was also on hand yesterday with "Dinosaur 13" director Todd Douglas Miller to talk about the doc for the AOL Build series. You can watch the whole thing here.

"Dinosaur 13" hits select theaters August 15 (get showtimes & tickets). Larson's fave dino flicks are below.

Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Sundance Film Festival...

Nearly 20 years ago, paleontologist Peter Larson (center) discovered the most complete T-Rex to date. He nicknamed her Sue, then wound up in jail after a small battle with the government over the fossils. Now he's stopping by the AOL Build Series to talk about the film that's captured it all. Watch as he chats with filmmaker Todd Douglas Miller (left) and Huffington Post Science editor David Freeman about his new documentary, "Dinosaur 13."

Come back at 2:45pm Et/11:45am Pt to watch it live!

Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images...

CNN Films and Lionsgate have released a trailer for "Dinosaur 13" - a documentary that examines the controversy surrounding the discovery of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found. Approximately two years after the discovery of "Sue," the FBI came in and took possession of the fossil and all of the research that went along with it. Subsequently, paleontologist Peter Larson, along with his team, end up spending the better part of the next 10 years battling the U.S. Government and various other groups over who owns "Sue." Directed by Todd Douglas Millder, "Dinosaur 13" premiered at Sundance in January and was almost immediately picked up for distribution by CNN Films and Lionsgate. The film was also nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Read More: Sundance Review: 'Dinosaur 13' Salutes the World's Greatest T-Rex Skeleton and Mourns the Fate of Its Discoverers "Dinosaur 13" opens in theaters on August 15th.

Here's a great trailer to a fascinating looking documentary called Dinosaur 13. The film follows a team of paleontologists in the 1990s and their discovery of a T-rex they named Sue, and how the government used the highest Us law enforcement agencies to take it away from them. It looks like it will be a very frustrating story to watch unfold. Here's the synopsis:

When Paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute made the world's greatest dinosaur discovery in 1990, they knew it was the find of a lifetime: the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. But during a ten-year battle with the U.S. government, powerful museums, Native American tribes and competing paleontologists, they found themselves not only fighting to keep their dinosaur but fighting for their freedom as well.

 The movie is set to be released on August 15th.

Though the next most exciting thing happening with dinosaurs on the big screen seems to be either the appearance of Dinobots in Transformers: Age of Extinction this summer or Jurassic World in 2015, there's a documentary coming out for anyone interested in the digging up of the deceased prehistoric creatures from the ground. Dinosaur 13 is a compelling enough film about a fierce legal battle that ensued for the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that most of the public knows as Sue. The doc focuses on the diggers who found the skeleton (sometimes a little too closely in their personal relationships for my tastes), and shows an exhausting and frustrating court case determining the rights to this history-making dino. Watch the trailer! Here's the first trailer for Todd Douglas Miller's Dinosaur 13 from Lionsgate: And here's the first poster for the documentary from Lionsgate and CNN Films: When Paleontologist Peter Larson and...

In 1990, paleontologist Peter Larson and his team discovered the biggest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever recorded in the badlands of South Dakota. Named Sue — after Susan Hendrickson, the woman who initially found the first fossils — the skeleton became a major tourist attraction for Larson’s Black Hill Institute. But in 1992, the FBI arrived with a warrant and the National Guard — and confiscated Sue, claiming that the scientists had stolen her off private property. It seems everyone wanted a piece of Sue. Over the next 10 years, Larson’s team would have to fight in court, not only for their...

Lionsgate announced today the limited theatrical, on demand and Digital HD release of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival documentary hit, Dinosaur 13. The film will be available day-and-date in select theaters including New York and Los Angeles, on Friday, August 15, 2014.

When renowned Paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute made the world’s greatest dinosaur discovery in 1990, they knew it was the find of a lifetime: the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found. But during a ten-year battle with the U.S. government, powerful museums, Native American tribes and competing paleontologists, they found themselves not only fighting to keep their dinosaur but fighting for their freedom as well.

Dinosaur 13 is based on the book Rex Appeal: The Amazing Story of Sue, The Dinosaur That Changed Science, The Law and My Life by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan.

Critics agree that Dinosaur 13 was “quite the...