Mackenzie Crook wraps filming on Beagle 2 feature Mars Express in Yorkshire
The Detectorists creator’s first feature as director stars Toby Jones and Emily Watson as Colin and Judith Pillinger.
Shooting has finished in Yorkshire on Mars Express, the first feature film directed by Mackenzie Crook.
Crook, writer and director of Small Prophets and Detectorists, filmed at locations around the county including York BioTech Campus and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
The film tells the true story of planetary scientists Professor Colin Pillinger and Dr Judith Pillinger, husband and wife, who built the Beagle 2 probe to search Mars for signs of organic life. Mutton-chopped and with a broad West Country accent, Colin Pillinger became an unlikely scientific hero.
The couple ran a farm in the English countryside, keeping dairy cattle and various other animals. Despite having never built a spacecraft, they assembled a team of mavericks that took on NASA and almost won.
Fellow Detectorists actor Toby Jones plays Colin Pillinger, with multi Academy Award nominee Emily Watson (Hamnet, Breaking The Waves, Chernobyl) as Judith.
The supporting cast features 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) and Julian Rhind-Tutt (Napoleon, Unforgotten). BAFTA winner Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Deadpool & Wolverine) and Academy Award-winning filmmaker and actor Fisher Stevens (Succession, Beckham) also appear.
Joe Bone (The Vanishing) wrote the screenplay, based on the book by Colin Pillinger, ‘My Life On Mars: The Beagle 2 Diaries’.
“It’s a complete honour to be telling the extraordinary story of Colin Pillinger and Beagle 2 for my first feature film as director,” said Crook.
“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.”
Mary Burke produces, together with Big Talk Studios’ Luke Alkin and Kenton Allen and Altitude’s Will Clarke and Andy Mayson.
Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund backed the production, with further support and finance from BBC Film, Sky, CML Entertainment Finance and the BFI, which awarded National Lottery funding.
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