Mars Express
Mars Express is a feature film that is in pre-production with Big Talk Studios, Altitude 100 and BBC attached. Mackenzie Crook (director) is attached. It is filming in United Kingdom. Production List last updated this listing on June 9, 2026.
Project Summary
Mars Express marks Mackenzie Crook's feature directorial debut, with his Detectorists co-star Toby Jones attached to lead. The film tells the true story of Colin and Judith Pillinger and their mission to land a spacecraft on Mars in the late 1990s. With no background in spacecraft engineering, the couple assembled an unconventional team that came remarkably close to succeeding with the Beagle 2 Mars lander project. Joe Bone has written the script, based on Pillinger's book My Life On Mars: The Beagle 2 Diaries. Big Talk Studios and Altitude are producing, developed in association with BBC Film. Production is scheduled to shoot in the UK later in 2026, with a soundtrack of Britpop classics. Altitude will handle theatrical release in UK and Ireland, with international sales.
Production Contacts— Members Only
The production office contacts for Mars Express are on file at Production List, last updated June 9, 2026, and are available to members. Membership is $29.95 for the first month.
Cast & Crew
Directing
| Director | Mackenzie Crook |
Writing
| Writer | Joe Bone |
Contact details for each person listed are on file and available to members.
Working on Mars Express
Mars Express is in pre-production, which is when a production hires its crew: department heads first, then each department. How productions hire crew · Working as an extra · Reaching the production office
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Source: Production List, published by the Film & Television Industry Alliance. Cite this page as https://www.productionlist.com/production/mars-express (last updated Jun 9, 2026).