Principal photography has wrapped on Mar Express, the feature film debut from Mackenzie Crook, writer/director of hit series Small Prophets and Detectorists and star of The Office and the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise.
The extraordinary true story of Colin and Judith Pillinger, and their mission to find life on Mars, stars BAFTA winner Toby Jones (Mr Burton, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) reuniting him with Crook, right, following their successful collaboration on the award-winning Detectorists, and multi Academy Award nominee Emily Watson (Hamnet, Breaking The Waves, Chernobyl) in the roles of Colin and Judith Pillinger.
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On the project, Crook says: “It’s a complete honour to be telling the extraordinary story of Colin Pillinger and Beagle 2 for my first feature film as director. Joe Bone’s beautiful script has made it easy to attract some of the best names in the business to join our brilliantly creative team and I’m thrilled to be working once again with my friend Toby Jones. Thank you to all … for their trust and support in making this funny, poignant and inspiring film.”
Mid-90s Britain. Planetary scientists Professor Colin Pillinger and his wife Doctor Judith Pillinger set out to build the Beagle 2 probe to go to Mars in search of organic life. With his mutton chops and strong West Country accent, Colin was an unlikely scientific hero. He and Judith owned an idyllic farm in the English countryside where they kept dairy cattle and other assorted animals.
With little previous experience of building a spacecraft, they pulled together a team of mavericks who took on NASA and almost won.
Set against a vivid 90s backdrop with a soundtrack of Britpop classics, MARS EXPRESS comes at a time when audience fascination with space exploration is at an all-time high. It is the film planet Earth needs right now.
The script is written by Joe Bone (The Vanishing), based on Professor Colin Pillinger’s book ‘My Life On Mars: The Beagle 2 Diaries’.
The movie’s supporting cast includes Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley, Black Mirror: Demon 75), Richard Coyle (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Other Bennet Sister), Thaddea Graham (Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Jay Kelly), David Dencik (Clayface, Top of The Lake), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Napoleon, Unforgotten), BAFTA winner Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Deadpool & Wolverine) and Academy Award-winning filmmaker and actor Fisher Stevens (Succession, Beckham).
Producers are Mary Burke; Luke Alkin and Kenton Allen for Big Talk Studios; Will Clarke and Andy Mayson for Altitude. Co-produced by Big Talk Studios and Altitude, the film was developed in association with BBC Film and financed by BBC Film, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Sky, Screen Yorkshire through the Yorkshire Content Fund and CML Entertainment Finance Limited.
Altitude is handling international sales and will release the film in UK and Irish cinemas.
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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