Matt Damon poses for photographers on the 7th of September. He stars in the film The Informant Photo: REUTERS
Mr Damon will play the role of Benjamin Mee, whose mother sold her home in Surrey so the family could buy Dartmoor Zoo when it was about to go out of business.
Mr Mee only managed to persuade the owners to sell to someone with no experience of running a zoo and no finances to redevelop one
when no other buyer could be found and the animals faced being shot.
when no other buyer could be found and the animals faced being shot.
He took over the estate and the family moved into its 12-bedroom house while, outside, were "five Siberian tigers, three African lions, nine wolves, three brown European bears, two pumas, a lynx, four Asian short-clawed otters, two flamingos, quite a lot of owls and a Brazilian tapir called Ronnie".
The colourful events which unfolded offer plenty of material for storytellers - including the pet cats encountering three brown bears, the stand-off between an escaped jaguar and a Siberian tiger and loading a cardboard zebra with meat to make the lions enjoy feeding more.
The film will be financed by 20th Century Fox, directed by Cameron Crowe, who made Jerry Maguire.
