British actor Mackenzie Crook, known for the original version of “The Office” and “The Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, is making his feature film directorial debut with a new film titled “Mars Express” (not to be confused with the French animated film) and has landed veteran actress Emily Watson on the project inspired by true events as farmers take on NASA connected to finding life on Mars, which will see her starring alongside character actor Toby Jones.
Watson had revealed her involvement and leading role in “Mars Express” to Screen Daily while attending the Sarajevo Film Festival, where she is head of the festival jury and had received the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award.
As mentioned in the outlet’s report, “the project tells the true story of Colin and Judith Pillinger, to be played by Jones and Watson, and their mission to find life on Mars back in the late 1990s. With no prior experience of building a spacecraft, the English farmers pulled together a team of misfits who took on NASA and almost won.”
That’s not only because the movie is said to use classic Britpop tunes as its soundtrack, a huge part of the era it’ll be exploring. Some of the big Britpop bands of the era were Oasis, Blur, Pulp, The Verve, Supergrass, and Suede (if you’re too young to know, Oasis and Blur were adversaries during the time).
Of course, Watson is coming off some high-profile work with HBO on their series “Dune: Prophecy” and the Emmy-winning nuclear disaster drama “Chernobyl.” She was also recently part of the ensemble cast of Chloe Zhao‘s “Hamnet”. In the past, Watson earned two Oscar nominations for “Breaking the Waves” and “Hilary & Jackie.” Speaking of the “Dune” prequel series, Watson is returning to the sci-fi fantasy show’s second season.
“Mars Express” has a script written by Joe Bone, with Big Talk Studios and Altitude producing the sci-fi pic, developed in association with BBC Film, with filming aiming to begin later this year in the United Kingdom.
