The Wildest Dream: Conquest Of Everest August 6, 2010

THE WILDEST DREAM: CONQUEST OF EVEREST IN-THEATRE GIVEAWAY! Attend the Friday, August 6, 7:40pm show for a chance to win a deluxe gift package from the film, valued at more than $250, including North Face backpack, The Complete National Geographic (130 years of National Geographic on DVD), Timex Expedition watch, signed copy of Conrad Anker’s book The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest, National Geographic Mt. Everest map & THE WILDEST DREAM: CONQUEST OF EVEREST poster, and coupon for 25% discount at National Geographic store. Two packages will be given away in random drawing at 8/6 7:40 show only.

In 1999, renowned American mountaineer Conrad Anker made a discovery that reverberated around the globe. High in Mount Everest’s “death zone,” he found the body of George Mallory—75 years after the British explorer mysteriously vanished during his attempt to become the first man to summit the world’s tallest peak. Mallory had risked everything as he set out, dressed in gabardine and hobnailed boots, in pursuit of his dream of reaching the top of Everest - which in 1924 was the last great adventure left to man. He was last spotted alive just 800 feet below the summit. Then the clouds rolled in and Mallory vanished into legend. After discovering Mallory’s body, Conrad Anker’s life became intertwined with Mallory’s story. Remarkably, Mallory’s body was found with all his belongings intact. The only thing missing was a photograph of Ruth, which Mallory had promised to place on the summit. Haunted by Mallory's story, Conrad longed to return to Everest to lay Mallory’s ghost to rest.

Directed by Emmy® award winning filmmaker Anthony Geffen (Jerusalem: City of Heaven, The Promised Land, The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization) and featuring the vocal talents of Academy Award® nominees Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, as well as Hugh Dancy, Alan Rickman and the late Natasha Richardson, THE WILDEST DREAM: CONQUEST OF EVEREST is a breathtaking mountaineering adventure that seeks to provide answers to the enduring mysteries surrounding the death of George Mallory on Mount Everest. Foremost among them: Could Mallory have succeeded in reaching the summit before he and fellow climber Andrew “Sandy” Irvine disappeared in 1924?
In the quest for answers, Anker finally returns to Everest in 2007 with British climbing prodigy Leo Houlding, replicating as closely as possible Mallory’s ill-fated expedition. Far more than a film about mountain climbing, THE WILDEST DREAM: CONQUEST OF EVEREST tells the remarkable story of George Mallory, whose famous reply to a reporter’s question about his reason for wanting to climb Everest (“Because it’s there”) has inspired generations of adventurers. Mallory was a passionate and complex man, torn between two overwhelming and competing loves: his wife and the mountain that ultimately took his life. Told through the poignant and evocative letters between Mallory and his beloved Ruth, the film combines previously unseen archival photos, specially restored film footage and dramatization with the present-day story of Anker’s expedition to tell the tale of the quest to conquer Everest and the compelling longing for home. In this, Anker’s story parallels Mallory’s in a tale of obsession as relevant today as it was in 1924.