'Dinosaur 13' Trailer: A Wonderful Discovery Becomes A Legal Horror Story

The documentary Dinosaur 13 tells story that is first uplifting and then utterly infuriating. It's a wild ride. The film begins with the 1990 discovery of a T-rex skeleton, nicknamed Sue, and follows the work of a group of semi-pro paleontologists who unearth and preserve the skeleton, only to have it taken from them by the highest US law enforcement agencies. You've seen the National Guard roll into a town in monster movies, but here, the Guard shows up to help the FBI take a long-dead dino from the people who found it. Check out the Dinosaur 13 trailer below.

The film premiered at Sundance this year (see Germain's review here), and it has some issues — there's a "throw everything in" mentality that waters down some of the story's powerful impact. But that doesn't change the fact that the tale is captivating, and you'll likely be willing to slog through the seemingly less-relevant bits just to see the high points of the series of events.

Dinosaur 13 hits theaters on August 15. Trailer from Lionsgate.

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.