Touchstone Pictures

"MISSION TO MARS"

Production Information

 

The year is 2020 and NASA has made another giant leap for mankind -- successfully landing a team of astronauts on Mars. However, shortly after their arrival on the Martian surface, Mission Commander Luke Graham (DON CHEADLE) and his colleagues encounter something bizarre, shocking and chilling that brings about a catastrophic and mysterious disaster which decimates the crew. Graham is able to send one hasty cryptic message back to Earth before his nightmare begins.

Haunted by the enigmatic last communication received from the ill-fated Mars One crew, NASA hurriedly prepares and launches a rescue mission to investigate the tragedy and bring back survivors -- if any. Co-piloted by Commander Woody Blake (TIM ROBBINS) and Jim McConnell (GARY SINISE), with colleagues Dr. Terri Fisher (CONNIE NIELSEN) and scientist Phil Ohlmyer (JERRY O'CONNELL) on board, the astronauts set out on a heroic sixth month journey to Mars.

"Mission To Mars" is the extraordinary story of the astronauts of the Mars Recovery Mission, the nearly insurmountable dangers that confront the heroic crew on their journey through space, and the amazing discovery they make when they finally reach Mars.

Touchstone Pictures presents a Jacobson Company production of a Brian De Palma film, "Mission To Mars." Directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Tom Jacobson, the screenplay is by Jim Thomas & John Thomas and Graham Yost. The story is by Lowell Cannon and Jim Thomas & John Thomas. Sam Mercer is executive producer. Buena Vista Pictures distributes.

Genesis of the Project

"I had always wanted to do a space adventure movie; something dramatic, realistic and contemporary about human space exploration," says producer Tom Jacobson, who co-conceived the idea of "Mission To Mars."

"It's a great story and a great adventure," says director Brian De Palma. "I'd never directed science fiction before, so the problem of shooting outer space and shooting a planet nobody's ever seen before gave me a whole new canvas with which to work. I tried to avoid all the clichés of science fiction movies and to give a whole new look and approach to this fantastic story."

Unlike a lot of other science fiction films, the director acknowledges, the most exciting aspect of making the movie was to create realism. He recalls the 1950 classic "Destination Moon," which he saw as a young boy, and was one of the first science fiction films to attempt a high level of technical accuracy. "I was struck by how authentic that film looked. What we've tried to do is to make ‘Mission To Mars' as authentic as possible, and it's what we've realized. The film is all the more exciting because you feel like it's extremely real. The various things that happen to the Mars One and Two crews in this film all come out of the physics of what could happen in the situations presented in the story. So, it is realistic and extremely authentic."

From the beginning, Jacobson knew the project was on the right track. "We began at the crest of a tremendous amount of public interest in Mars," he says. On July 4, 1997, Pathfinder landed on Mars and sent back its first images from the planet. The day those images were broadcast from NASA, there were one hundred million hits on their web site. "People are fascinated by the rich, mythological history of Mars and I think one of the reasons that the world was glued to those pictures is that people want to find evidence of something out there. They wanted that little rover to come over the hill and make an amazing discovery," he says.

Jacobson commissioned a script, and contacted NASA before work began on it in order to meet with the people involved in the future manned space program and learn about how one would actually go to Mars. It was a very educational process.

"A very important part of the process of writing the script and producing the movie was to keep it as NASA-accurate as possible. It is a work of fiction, but we wanted the science and physics of astronauts getting there to be factual. Many aspects of the script are based on NASA theory and how they would actually plan a Mars mission. We kept in touch with NASA, and the more we talked with them, the more excited they got and the more access they gave us to different people and different areas of the space program."

During the development phase of the film, a magazine article came to the producer's attention: an excerpt from Robert Zubrin's book, The Case For Mars. "It was about going to Mars and it was fascinating, with a tremendous amount of technical detail," Jacobson says. The founder and president of the Mars Society, senior vice president of the National Space Society and former senior engineer at Lockheed Martin, Zubrin is known for his innovative concepts for getting man into space, faster, better and cheaper. Zubrin was hired as a consultant during development of the script and then Jacobson purchased the rights to his book. "In this nonfiction work, there is so much detail about how we could go to Mars, including proposals for spaceships, Mars habitats and mission plans," the producer says. "Once we started pre-production, we gave the book to practically everyone involved in the movie. It's very inspirational."

Jacobson was pleased with how the script evolved. "The Thomases broke the back of the story and wrote a really good draft." He then called upon Graham Yost, with whom he'd previously worked on "Speed" and "Broken Arrow." Following Yost's contribution, the script was ultimately ready to be turned in to the studio.

"The script combines great action and thrills, along with tremendous drama and wonderful characters," says producer Jacobson. "We sent it to Brian De Palma, he read it overnight and we got a call the next day that he would commit to directing the movie. From the moment he came on, he was very clear about his vision. The process with Brian is very definitive. When he generates an idea or arrives at a conclusion, you know exactly what he wants and then you can produce it. A clear and inspirational point of view is exactly what is needed for a film of this size and complexity and it's been a great collaboration.

"An interesting aspect of the collaboration," the producer points out, "is that Brian De Palma and I are both science enthusiasts," Jacobson smiles. Indeed, Jacobson studied engineering before turning his talents to film, while De Palma was a physics major in university when he chose to embark upon his illustrious filmmaking career. In fact, as a teenager, De Palma went to the prestigious National Science Fair a remarkable three times with projects on cybernetics, and twice won prizes.

De Palma hopes that "Mission To Mars" will help the cause of an eventual manned mission going to Mars. He says, "By working on the film, I reacquainted myself with my own interest in this area. I started out reading science fiction, building computers and being fascinated by the exploration of the other planets in our solar system. And everything like this has been forgotten for a couple of decades which, for me, is a great tragedy. I think it's unfortunate that this aspect of the great explorer part of Man has been left by the way side. We should be out there exploring the planets, Mars being the first. We can go there."

"Mission To Mars" is set in 2020 because, according to De Palma, "That's the date that experts predict we should have a manned landing on Mars."

De Palma says, "We have tried to make this film NASA-real -- all the space vehicles in the film are vehicles that are either on the drawing board or ones whose designs have been approved by NASA, so that there's not much science fantasy or science fiction to this. We can, in fact, go to Mars if we wanted to now. We've reached the 21st century, and I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of excitement about visiting Mars. This is a very inspirational story, exactly about that."

De Palma says, "‘Mission To Mars' celebrates the pioneering and exploratory ideal in Man. Our astronauts are great explorers, and get themselves into a lot of difficult situations and, through their ingenuity, manage to extricate themselves. It's a very heroic, positive movie, which I think is very much in line with the times. We're looking to the future, and we should be setting our sights high."

In setting out to cast "Mission To Mars," "It was very important that the three main characters, the core of the movie, be strong actors," says Tom Jacobson. "When we were able to cast actors of the caliber of Gary Sinise, Don Cheadle and Tim Robbins we were thrilled, because they bring a truthfulness to their roles."

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner and Academy Award® nominee Gary Sinise was the first actor cast. His reasons for accepting the part of Jim McConnell were many: "The themes in the story are very real and spiritual; Jim's a great character and it was a great journey," he says. "There's so much in this movie that's in essence about man's nature to explore and constantly search for things beyond himself. And Brian De Palma was directing." Sinise previously worked with De Palma on "Snake Eyes," and had already done a tremendous amount of space travel preparation and research for his role as real-life astronaut Ken Mattingly in Ron Howard's "Apollo 13."

"It was great to work with Gary again," says the director, "he's a marvelous actor."

"The great thing about Gary Sinise," producer Jacobson says, "is that he brings integrity and credibility to the role."

Golden Globe winner and Academy Award®-nominee Tim Robbins, who stars as Mission Commander Woody Blake, had wanted to do an action adventure movie for some time. He says he jumped at the opportunity to be cast in "Mission To Mars" because it was, "a very exciting, visually stimulating story that did not rely on gratuitous violence and was about discovery, adventure and daring, courageous people risking it all to gather information and knowledge and to see if there is life on Mars. There was also a special allure because of the sensibility Brian De Palma would bring to this."

Golden Globe winner and, while filming "Mission To Mars," a nominee for two Emmy Awards, Don Cheadle stars as Mission Commander Luke Graham, the first man to walk on Mars and leader of the ill-fated Mars One mission. He says, "I think what drew me to the role of Luke was that he was going to change 180 degrees from the first time you see him. From the beginning of the film to the end he's an entirely different human being and that's always fun for an actor to play -- the same person but a completely different aspect of that person, pushed as far as you can push it."

When Connie Nielsen came in to read for the part of Terri Fisher, Jacobson says, "We knew she would be fabulous. She did a reading that brought tears to our eyes and she has brought a sense of intelligence to the role."

Jerry O'Connell was cast very early on. "There's a spirit Jerry has that we thought was great to have in this cast," says Jacobson. "He has exuberance and a youthful vitality and a sort of "let's go to Mars" enthusiasm. He makes you smile and that's a really good quality to have on board."

"Let's put it this way," quips Jerry O'Connell, "I did not get this part because of my scientific background." He admits, "It's every American little boy's dream to get to be an astronaut."

A recent graduate of New York University's film program, O'Connell was also thrilled by the prospect of working with the great director. "During my sophomore year, I wrote a paper on De Palma," he says with some pride and great enthusiasm -- but not quite enough to have shown the paper to his director.

 

The Mission to Mars

Columbus took the same amount of time to get to the New World as the "Mission To Mars" astronauts take to get to Mars. On Columbus' voyage, he didn't know if he would fall off the edge of the Earth. Well, eight minutes after lift off, you do fall off the edge of Earth. And then, you float the whole way to Mars.

— Dr. Joseph Allen, Retired NASA Astronaut

Gary Sinise stars as Jim McConnell, whom the actor says, "has lived his entire life dreaming of going into space and being an astronaut. He's put his whole life's work toward that and his ultimate goal was to be the first man on Mars." When McConnell's wife and fellow astronaut, Maggie (KIM DELANEY), dies, not only does he lose the love of his life, he loses Mars, too.

"But Maggie's spirit is always there," says Emmy Award-winner Delaney. "And in a sense, her spirit keeps him going, like an angel. They were so connected and such soul mates," she says.

No longer deemed "fit" for space travel because he refused to submit to psychological evaluations, McConnell now serves as "Capcom" (Capsule Communicator) at Mission Control.

In his place, McConnell's best friend, Luke Graham (DON CHEADLE), replaces him as commander of Mars One and makes the monumental voyage. But as Luke and his crew investigate an anomaly on the planet, something goes horribly wrong and the commander watches in terror as his crew is wiped out. He manages to get one cryptic radio message back to Mars Mission Control on the World Space Station, and then all communication ends.

Woody Blake (TIM ROBBINS), the astronaut slated to command the Mars Two mission months ahead, convinces Ray Beck, head of the NASA Mars program, that their only chance of rescuing Luke -- that is if he can manage to stay alive alone on Mars during the six months it will take them to make the journey there -- is with McConnell as his co-pilot. Reluctantly, Beck agrees, and so the Mars Rescue Mission is hurriedly put together. Woody's wife, Dr. Terri Fisher (CONNIE NIELSEN), and young scientist Phil Ohlmyer (JERRY O'CONNELL) complete the crew.

Robbins describes his character, Woody as, "A space cowboy. He's a great pilot, but he's got a wild side to him. He likes to drive fast, but he's also rational and scientifically intelligent. He's a good person to be around. As far as being in an enclosed community, you have to have this kind of distinct personality in order to survive with the other people.

"Woody and Terri," he continues, "have a unique, fun relationship. It's to NASA's benefit to have couples in space."

Connie Nielsen, who plays Woody's wife, Terri, points out, "It's not unusual that Terri's a female astronaut. There have been women astronauts for a long time now, and we've just had the first female commander in space," she says, referring to Eileen Collins, who commanded the Space Shuttle Columbia while "Mission To Mars" was filming. "What I think is interesting," Nielsen continues, "is that in this case, they're actually sending up a married couple."

She describes Woody and Terri's marriage as "that kind of very special relationship where people work together really well as a team, as well as human beings. They're completely different people, yet they just complement each other. He's fun loving, she's sort of serious. They function very well together." Nielsen also sees it as a beneficial idea to send couples on long-term space flights. "Anyway, there's not much risk of divorce out there," she laughs.

The actress says her character, Terri, is "tenacious, brave, rational and big-hearted."

Don Cheadle stars as Luke Graham, the first man on Mars and the one marooned there. "He's a scientist," Cheadle says, "so the discovery of this anomaly is exciting and thrilling, but at the same time, he's seen it kill his crew. And he knows it's dangerous -- it almost killed him. The explorer in him is passionate and the scientist is excited and the man with the wife and child back on Earth is terrified of what it all means."

The most challenging aspect of the role, he says, was "finding the right line between being as mad as the March Hare and the scientist whose mind is going two million miles an hour because he's discovered something that no other human being has ever seen. He's the only one alive at that point who can tell anyone about it, and he's also alone on the planet with that thing."

Cheadle enjoyed the work he did to prepare for Luke. "It was difficult trying to figure out how to prepare myself to be an astronaut who gets stranded alone on Mars in 2020," he says. "I had to determine what would the character be eating for a year? What kind of exercise was he doing in a third gravity? What was his mental state?" One of the things Cheadle did was to spend several nights sleeping in the Mars One habitat set, built on a sound stage. As he says, "I wanted to feel what it would be like to be alone in a completely foreign environment. I didn't stay there a week, or anything like that," he laughs. "I just stayed a few nights to try and get the feeling of isolation and to make the set -- if it was going to be my home for a year -- my home for a while and see how I would operate and work and where I would run if I thought there was trouble? It was helpful and more real and visceral than an idea might have been. And sometimes, it was really scary in there."

Like the actor who plays him, Jerry O'Connell describes Phil Ohlmyer as "someone who finds humor in the more stressful situations that the crew gets into." He recalls his first few days on set. "We did the first couple takes and I just thought to myself, ‘this is it. I've made it. I'm an astronaut and I'm going to fly the space ship out of here.' It was so cool."

Although he admits to not being a devout science fiction fan, Gary Sinise says he is "intrigued and awed by people that go into space and what they do and what they've accomplished in the last 40 years in terms of space flight and travel. This movie is about our next big mission. We've been to the moon. We may go back. We're building a space station and all of that is ultimately knowledge that will come into play when we make the decision to go to Mars. So I was very excited to be asked to be a part of this."

Connie Nielsen's research involved reading a lot of literature on Mars, space and mythology. She was especially drawn to the very human dimensions of "Mission To Mars." Referring to the popular image of astronauts, she says, "We have images of super heroes who can go through all sorts of dangerous situations and not react at all, and it turns out they're human beings. I think that's why we were very interested in showing what you would really feel like if you were out there. You're not just some machine."

A couple of months before filming began, Don Cheadle and Jerry O'Connell went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to observe a shuttle launch. "Of course, all of that starts piquing your interest as to what's out there," Cheadle says. "Once I became involved, everything became about space."

While not able to join his co-stars at NASA before production because of a very busy filming schedule, Gary Sinise says, "Whenever I play a role, I'm concerned about accuracy and truth, especially if it's something that's supposed to be fairly real, like this is." Sinise did as much research as he could, reading, studying and consulting with Story Musgrave, the legendary former NASA astronaut who served as technical advisor on the film.

 

NASA-real

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, known throughout the world by its initials NASA, signed a Space Act Agreement with "Mission To Mars" to participate in the film. The production worked very closely with NASA for over a year, relying on the expertise of a number of invaluable consultants, and NASA representative Bobbie Faye Ferguson spent a great deal of time on the set, liaising with the filmmakers and cast on a number of points of authenticity.

Former NASA astronauts Story Musgrave, the longest-serving astronaut to date and the one who holds the record for space-walking hours, and Joe Allen, who also served as a consultant on "Armageddon," served as technical advisors on "Mission To Mars." Their work began during the development phase, reviewing the script for accuracy, and then Musgrave and Allen met with the cast before shooting began, and talked about their experiences in space.

"The actors found them tremendously helpful," says producer Tom Jacobson. Musgrave remained on set throughout most of production, working with the actors as they did their own stunt work to simulate zero gravity.

According to Jacobson, "It was very interesting when our NASA consultants read the script. They loved it not just because they'd love to go to Mars, not just because they loved the science in it, but mostly because they loved the story. I've found out that these people are dreamers. Of course they're all tremendous technicians, engineers, pilots or physicists, but they're also explorers, and the script is about the dream of exploring the next frontier. And they loved the spirit of that in the script. Story and Joe were excited to work on this movie not just to help get the science accurate, but because of the spirit that the story promotes. They want us to go to Mars. They feel it's important to the human race to continue space exploration."

One of the things that made the producer most proud, he says, was that, "When the consulting technical experts visited the set, they said they felt like they were at home at NASA."

Executive producer Sam Mercer had amassed a great deal of space experience on an earlier project, which had given him the opportunity to really study NASA. He already knew how to go about eliciting NASA's support and had ideas about who to ask to serve as consultants. "Obviously," he says, "they want a piece of material that speaks strongly to what NASA and a man-in-space mission are all about. So, they were very cognizant of looking to see the scientific elements of the story and the design elements, to make sure that the ship and habitat we were going to build were technically in line with what would exist, hopefully, 20 years from now.

"That's one of the great things about this movie," he continues. "It's about space travel. It's a rescue mission and it's about strong characters that are real astronauts. Everything about the movie is real, especially the technical execution of the sets. When NASA consultants visited the set they were absolutely wowed by the level of detail in the sets."

NASA's participation involved major contributions in terms of access to scientists, trips to Houston and Florida to investigate what's in development and what's already real. Mercer elaborates, "The first process was technical assistance from NASA in terms of developing the screenplay and then the research. And the final process was to see if everything we wanted to do was in line with what NASA is doing and if the story makes a positive statement. Then it would get their seal of approval -- which we received."

Other key advisors included Lewis Peach, former Director of NASA's Advanced Projects/Future Concepts; and Matt Golombek, Chief Scientist on the Pathfinder mission and foremost expert on Mars. "At NASA, Matt's job was to specifically map Mars and recommend a safe landing site, which he did very precisely," explains Jacobson. "He was our expert on what it really looks like on Mars."

In "Mission To Mars," the ship is launched from the World Space Station, its design based on the actual one underway, with Mars Mission Control a rotating space wheel added on to the structure.

The largest project that NASA has ever attempted, the International Space Station involves 16 countries, will be larger than a football field and orbit the Earth from 240 miles above it.

Chief scientist on the Mars Pathfinder mission which landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, Matt Golombek is based at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena, NASA's unmanned space flight center, responsible for all the probes currently exploring the solar system.

Golombek consulted on the script and worked closely with the visual effects team during post-production to ensure a realistic-looking Mars.

Golombek was a key consultant for the filmmakers as they worked to put in the Martian sky. He describes it as, "Kind of brownish yellow, not quite red, but very close. We're fairly certain it's due to very fine grain dust raised during dust storms. But it must be getting up there in other ways as well. Dust devils -- little cyclones that lift dust up and put it into the atmosphere -- have been observed. The dust is so fine grained it takes a very long time to fall out. Even though the atmosphere is so thin, it's dense enough to keep it suspended. And it always seems to be sort of reddish or brownish yellow. In fact, 60 per cent of the light that is cast on the planet is bounced around among these dust particles in the atmosphere. So anything that's not in direct illumination, any shadow, any shading area appears reddish in color. It's very different from here. We can tell in a shadow that we're still wearing a blue shirt. On Mars, it would look red."

Golombek describes the script as "a real page-turner," and admits that during his first read, he almost forgot that he was wearing his technical advisor's hat. "It was hard, because I was hired to be a scientist on the project, but I was having so much fun reading it, I just wanted to see what would happen next. I actually had to go back and study it, for the technical parts," he says.

Of his own work at JPL, Golombek says, "Mars is such an incredibly interesting place. The goal of these projects is to learn about Mars, but I think that the ultimate value of the unmanned program is to set the stage for humans.

"I don't know when, but I do know that, sooner or later, people will go to Mars. At some point, the technology will improve, the cost will come down, the reliability will improve and it might even be affordable and people will go there. Looking ahead is the job of movies."

Tom Jacobson agrees: "If we've done our job right, we'll be one big advertisement for the continuation of human space exploration."

Brian De Palma adds, "I hope this movie will inspire some political candidate to pick up the cause for space exploration."

 

 

 

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Principal photography began on location in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was completed 15 days ahead of schedule.

Interior sets, including Mars Mission Control, the Mars Recovery ship, the Mars habitat and all of the deep space sequences in which the actors were suspended on harnesses against green screen backgrounds, were constructed on sound stages at the Bridge Studios near downtown Vancouver. Measuring an enormous 86 feet by 470 feet by 50 feet high, the John Thomas Effects stage at The Bridge is one of the largest sound stages in North America and is the historic former home of the Dominion Bridge Works, where parts of the Golden Gate Bridge were built.

The vast exterior Mars set was built at the Fraser Sand Dunes, in the suburb of Richmond, just south of Vancouver.

Second unit director Eric Schwab, who has worked extensively with director De Palma since "Casualties of War," and his crew also filmed parts of the Martian terrain on locations in Jordan, at the world heritage site of the Ancient City of Petra, and Diseh in the Wederum region, as well as on the Island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

A miniature model of the Mars Recovery Ship was built at visual effects house, Dream Quest Images' model shop in Los Angeles and miniature models of the REMO (Resupply Module) and ERV (Earth Return Vehicle) were built at Industrial Light and Magic's model stage.

A number of members of the creative team included De Palma alumni. Cinematographer Stephen Burum previously worked with the acclaimed director on "Snake Eyes," "Mission: Impossible," "Carlito's Way," "Raising Cain," "Casualties of War," "The Untouchables," and "Body Double"; Academy Award®-winner editor Paul Hirsch ("Star Wars") edited nine other De Palma pictures: "Mission: Impossible," "Raising Cain," "Blow Out," "The Fury, "Carrie," "Obsession," "Phantom of the Paradise," "Sisters" and "Hi Mom!" and special effects coordinator Garry Elmendorf worked on "Snake Eyes."

The actual physical geography of the locations he shoots is of particular importance to De Palma, and filming "Mission To Mars" presented special challenges, not the least of which was shooting in outer space—a physical space which does not exist. The director explains, "It was especially exciting because we had to create everything that the actors were in."

To do this, he used computer animation software and animated story boards, called animatics, to help pre-visualize the major action sequences. And then, editor Paul Hirsch signed on an unusual five weeks before filming began to work with the director to previsualize the film. The edited animatics proved an invaluable tool as the actors and creative keys were able see what the action scenes would ultimately look like.

De Palma explains, "We had to imagine the space and create it, first through visualizing and story boarding, and then creating animatics, and then, ultimately, creating the virtual spaces themselves. On this film, we had none of the normal things one relies on, like a bright sunny day or an interesting piece of architecture that happens to be there. We had to create all that and the computer technology is so sophisticated that now, you actually can create anything you can imagine which gives filmmakers whole new visual frontiers."

"Brian (De Palma) is an incredibly skillful, thoughtful, original filmmaker and compositionally, he is very strong," says producer Tom Jacobson. "The choice of shots he made seemed to make the movie feel like a classic while he was shooting it."

A newcomer to the De Palma team, production designer Ed Verreaux was no stranger to space-themed films or movies strong on visual effects, having previously designed "Contact," and having worked on "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Poltergeist," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Back to the Future Part III." He also has the distinction of having served as character creator on the creature that came to be known as E.T.

Under Verreaux's direction, the art department built a series of spectacular sets, not the least of which was the interior of the space ship Mars Recovery. Story Musgrave describes its cockpit as, "Any pilot's dream. It just excites the imagination."

Consultant Joe Allen agreed. "The space craft look like ones you could step in and fly."

* * *

The manned missions to Mars depicted in the film portray space technology that is similar to what NASA projects it will use in the first real manned mission to the fourth planet from the sun, including space vehicles, human habitats, procedures and Mars surface transport. Based on author Robert Zubrin's ideas in The Case for Mars, the "Mission To Mars" trip is set up to have taken place in several parts: the idea being to get as much up there before humans are sent. First to arrive is the ERV (Earth Return Vehicle), an unmanned robotic ship, which probably took some three years to get to Mars. It has enough fuel to get there and land. Once on Mars, robotics can make fuel from the Martian atmosphere and soil for the return trip home. Only once everything else is already there does the manned mission go, which is much lighter now because most of the cargo has gone up earlier. The manned mission, which has the command module and the habitat, is a six month journey, that being the maximum amount of time we currently know humans can survive space travel.

In November 1998, eight months before the start of filming, Verreaux set to work, reading Zubrin's The Case for Mars, then speaking with people at the Planetary Society and JPL. He assembled his art department, relying on the expertise of art directors Tom Valentine and Andrew Neskoromny. Verreaux acknowledges that "A lot of stuff is based on Zubrin's ideas, sending up unmanned robotic ships, going slowly to conserve fuel. But I also wanted to keep a NASA look, inspired by the space shuttles. In the ships and habitats, there is no decoration."

A monumental set piece which is filmed in spellbinding fashion, the spectacular lower hab—the living quarters—on Mars Recovery, was a giant, three and a half story spinning wheel, the size of a midway Ferris wheel, which affectionately came to be known as "the wheel of cheese."

In fact, a centrifuge is planned for the actual upcoming space station. To build the wheel, Verreaux worked closely with Garry Elmendorf, a third generation special effects coordinator who had worked with De Palma on "Snake Eyes" and most recently served on "The Sixth Sense." Elmendorf and his effects team, which consisted of 42 people in two different shops, had the structure and mechanism working in five weeks. The wheel was 36 feet in diameter with 67 pounds of rotating mass and its 100 horsepower hydraulic engine could make it spin 20 feet per second (at the circumference). Elmendorf says, "It was a pretty impressive piece, especially when it was up and spinning. Hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic motor and other controls allowed us to control the speed within very minute changes—we could do it within a tenth of a foot per second. We could get it down to how many inches per second we wanted it to travel and adjust the reliability factor."

The reason such precision was required was that three of the films' stars—Gary Sinise, Connie Nielsen and Jerry O'Connell—were going to be strapped into it while it spun. Elmendorf previously worked with stunt coordinator Jeff Habberstad and together, they had to come up with clever ways to make it look like the actors weren't harnessed in. Sinise is seated for the duration of the scene, but Nielsen stands and O'Connell works out on the step master and they both walk away from their stations and climb the ladder that runs through the center of the rotating wheel.

"Technically, it was a mind bender," says Elmendorf, "freeing them up so they could walk and climb the ladders and go from gravity to Zero-G."

Very impressed by a cast that did a high percentage of their own stunt work, Habberstad says, "The hardest part was loading and unloading the actors. Gary took the longest to hook in, so we'd do him first. Then he'd have to hang upside down while we loaded the other actors. He made three complete revolutions during each shot, while Jerry made two."

Verreaux smiles as he recalls what Story Musgrave told him after viewing his sets. "He said, ‘this is art.' Then, he spent a lot of time sitting in the cockpit, feeling the Gestalt of the thing. It felt real to him."

 

The Mission's Mars

One of the biggest sets ever built for a motion picture, the surface of Mars was constructed at the Fraser Sand Dunes, just south of Vancouver. The 55-acre Martian landscape was sculpted from sand dunes and coated with thousands of square yards of ‘shotcrete,' a sprayable form of concrete. Fire hoses were used to paint the two million square foot-terrain, spraying 100 gallons of environmentally friendly Mars Red latex paint per minute. A total of 120,000 gallons of paint were used on the Martian surface.

While the second unit did film certain landscape elements in Jordan and the Canary Islands, Ed Verreaux points out a major difference between the Earth and Mars: "Any place in the world, no matter how barren the desert is, there is always green. There is always something growing."

The number one challenge for Executive Producer Sam Mercer was the Mars exterior set. He says, "What should Mars look like and how do we deal with things like the sky, which looks a little like a smoggy, Los Angeles sunset? And where could we find a shooting space so expansive?"

Weighing all the possibilities, including trying to find stage space large enough to accommodate the productions' requirements (it doesn't yet exist - a sound stage would have needed to be 1,000 by 1,000 square feet and 70 feet high), the answer ended up being at the Fraser Sand Dunes near Vancouver. But, as Mercer explains, "On Mars, the space looks endless. The Valle Marineris is the length of the United States. But the Sand Dunes were four times bigger than other locations we were considering, and the view to the river had no tree line and there was our endless horizon."

Ed Verreaux equates his design work at the Fraser Dunes as "getting to play in the world's biggest sand box. We brought in huge earth moving equipment and we sculpted our own terrain." And thus they built the surface of Mars.

"We all agreed we wanted a realistic looking Mars," says Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer Stephen Burum ("Hoffa"), who worked closely with Verreaux to map Mars. With the assistance of a computer program which charts the path of the sun by date and location, Burum says, "Ed was able to orient the hills so we would always have optimum light. It gave us a lot more texture and feeling of the great outdoors and we were able to utilize the whole shooting day and always have somewhere where the light was good. And it was great that we could have the bulldozers push up all those hills in exactly the right configuration, and we knew what the configuration needed to be because we had the sun path charted."

Technical advisor Matt Golombek, who chose the landing site for the Mars Pathfinder, says the Martian set was "Spectacular. It's the kind of site that scientists would die for. It has hills, rocks, valleys and topography to really study. And yet, when you do site selection for a Mars mission, the most important thing is safety. Without certain knowledge of the surface, you would tend to go to a fairly flat and perhaps somewhat boring location. But a scientist would be delirious to land his mission in a little box canyon, with rocks all around, as in the film. But the engineers would never let that happen," he laughs.

The filmmakers worked closely with NASA scientists so that the Martian landscape and weather systems were depicted as accurately as science currently understands. On Mars, dust storms can last for up to six months. To effectively create a Martian dust storm on Earth, Elmendorf and his special effects team built 10 V8, 350 horsepower wind machines which blew pink silica dust over the sand dunes.

Also built for the terrain of Mars was the wondrous four-man Martian Rover, designed by Verreaux and Tim Flattery, who also designed the famed Batmobile.

Brian De Palma is known for his extraordinary camera set ups and unusually long takes. Because his scenes are often shot continuously, with no cutting to another angle or take, the acting requirements are sometimes more similar to stage work than film. Referring to fellow actors Gary Sinise and Tim Robbins and himself, Don Cheadle says, "Brian hired actors that come from the theater. Actors with experience that share a common language about the same kinds of things that we're trying to get out of a script."

Both Sinise and Tim Robbins are established directors. Sinise directed the features "Of Mice and Men" and "Miles From Home," both of which were screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Robbins' directorial efforts include "Dead Man Walking," for which he was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Director, and the recent "Cradle Will Rock." And during production of "Mission To Mars," Cheadle was preparing to make his feature directorial debut. Jerry O'Connell had also directed several episodes of his TV series "Sliders."

"We always knew who the director was," Cheadle says with a smile. "We may all be directors, but Brian directed this film."

Tim Robbins says, "When I'm acting, I'm so happy to just act. After an actor's directed, he has so much more respect for directors. The more a film can be about one vision, about one man's overall concept, the better for the film. And that vision is impossible without contributions from all the actors and craftspeople, and a great director is able to get a lot of positive energy towards him and productive input. It's best when a film has a good, strong figure that's going to guide it."

The actors consulted closely with each other during most of the visual effects sequences. As Cheadle explains, "When you're looking at nothing but a blank green screen it has to be a shared and agreed experience, if we were all supposed to be seeing the same thing. We had to discuss what that thing was going to be, so we weren't reacting out of proportion with the others, and how we felt about it, what it looked like and did it have a sound. And we asked all these questions to bring us more deeply into the world of green screen," he laughs, then corrects himself. "No. To bring us more deeply into the world of Mars, when we were looking at a green screen."

Producer Jacobson admits that "It's a very complex, ambitious movie in terms of the visual effects. But we are taking the audience to a place where they can't really go. We want them to feel like they're in an amazingly strange, beautiful, scary, thrilling environment." And to do this on the film's 400-plus visual effects shots required the expertise of two visual effects houses: Dream Quest Images and the renowned Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).

While "Mission To Mars" involves more visual effects than De Palma's previous films, it was not an overly daunting challenge for the director. Because computers remain one of his hobbies, and he started building and designing them as a young man, he is very familiar with the technology and understood the process. "It's just incredibly exacting and tedious and you have to be extremely well organized. I understand what you can do and how you can push the envelope -- all the time -- which we tried to do in this movie by creating worlds that avoid the clichés of space travel and space movies seen in the past."

Every exterior shot on Mars was digitally treated, as Jacobson says, "Because the Martian sky doesn't look like an Earth sky."

Other visual effects include traditional model work with the space ship miniatures, shot on stage in Los Angeles, and putting in star fields or the planet Mars in the deep space sequences. The production also relied on matte painting, as well as computer graphics, which are used extensively to create the cataclysmic vortex scenes.

Sam Mercer elaborates on the process of creating the look of Mars: "Ultimately, we divided everything into three parts. One was the practical set we built, which we gave the texture and color of Mars. We digitally enhanced the color of the sky. Then the second unit got big images in Jordan, and took reference photos and texture maps in the Canary Islands, which we digitally manipulated and then added in some 3D matte painting work."

Led by Academy Award®-winning ("The Abyss") visual effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman, Dream Quest Images' visual effects team of 53 digital artists, a 14-person production team, 11 stage crew and seven conceptual artists were responsible for the vortex attack and meteor shower sequences, in addition to shots of the Mars II Recovery in flight. In all, Dream Quest Images worked on over 100 shots.

Yeatman contacted JPL and consulted with Matt Golombek, chief scientist on the Pathfinder mission, who provided the visual effects team with technical data on planetary atmospherics.

The Mars II Recovery model, designed by Ed Verreaux, was built in Dream Quest Images' model shop by a team of 25 modelmakers. Construction of the elaborate 22-foot-long space vehicle took a total of 10 weeks, with an additional four weeks spent on the creation of the space vehicle's exploded sections, as well as a large tabletop Mars landscape.

Recovery's NASA-like design required custom fabrication of spherical fuel tanks, solar panels, antennae and lower deck. The Recovery's mechanized support armature had a second rotation axis which allowed the lower deck (the "wheel of cheese") to revolve independently of the ship.

Yeatman says the most challenging aspect of the film was "the creation of the vortex -- creating a character from natural and supernatural elements. Our challenge was to animate this particle system in a way that is menacing and creature-like, but totally believable as a phenomenon of dust and wind. The sheer magnitude of the image made this a process computationally intensive. Also demanding were the virtual programming and many digital matte paintings that underlie the Mars and outer space environments."

At ILM, visual effects supervisor John Knoll (who had previously worked with De Palma on "Mission: Impossible") and his team of some 60 animators, modelers, painters, envelopers, technical directors and compositors created over 300 shots. This work included a space walking sequence where the astronauts must capture the REMO (Resupply Module), and a sequence in which the astronauts visit an outer space planetarium to learn the evolution of earth.

The space walking sequence was filmed live-action, shooting the actors hanging from wires against a bluescreen in order to later composite a computer generated star field or the surface of Mars behind them. Practical wires and harnesses used during the live-action photography to suspend the actors were removed, while ropes that tethered the astronauts safely together were added digitally to create the sense of realism. This sequence, consisting of over 170 shots, was successfully completed in less than 3 months by a team of 25 digital artists.

The visit to the surface of Mars presented many difficulties for the artists of ILM who had to create a realistic Mars surface, as well as a dreamlike environment where the astronauts encounter an alien who shows them the evolution of Earth. Upon landing on Mars, the astronauts enter a holographic planetarium in which they are able to walk through the solar system. This sequence was achieved by creating a digital 3D planetarium in which the actors, shot separately against a background, could be added. A mystical alien soon appears and shows them a double helix strand of DNA, which morphs into creatures representing the evolution of the plant Earth. Morphing multiple creatures with diverse shapes and movements along with a changing terrain created unique challenges. Animators and technical directors took special care modeling and animating the 7 distinct creatures (paramecium, fish, lizard, crocodile, dinosaur, woolly mammoth and buffalo) to create a seamless transition from one era to another. The 84-second morphing sequence took 10 digital artists over 5 months to complete.

Dream Quest Images and ILM collaborated on the look of Mars, the sky replacements and both houses shot the miniature Mars Recovery.

 

The Spacesuits

The spacesuits worn by the cast in over half the film were designed after much consultation with NASA and include an array of practical features that function much in the same way that actual spacesuits do.

"We wanted to create a spacesuit that was a combination of an old-fashioned and a futuristic suit," says Tom Jacobson. "There's a lot of different ideas at NASA about what the future of spacesuits should be like. Some are very bulky and hard-shelled and some are looser in that they want the astronauts to be more flexible. We opted for the more flexible look because, frankly, we thought it was more attractive for our actors."

Costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays, who had previously designed costumes for such films as "Star Trek: Insurrection," "Blade" and "Beowulf," says, "The spacesuits were conceived by production designer Ed Verreaux and designed to be heroic looking." Milkovic Hays' contribution emphasized vertical lines.

She began her research by going to Johnson Space Center in Houston and was surprised when she observed where the actual spacesuits are made, "on an old, industrial Singer sewing machine," she says.

The spacesuits weigh 62 pounds. A cooling system, located in a battery pack in the backpack, provided fresh air to the helmets. "They had to have oxygen and air flowing through them to keep the face plates from fogging up," says Jacobson. "So, in a way, like NASA, the stuff had to work under harsh conditions. And movie making is harsh conditions," Jacobson smiles.

In addition to the cooling system, there were also "cool suits," practically identical to what is actually used by astronauts. Worn as the first layer of clothing under the sealed spacesuits, the "cool suits" were sweat suits in which ice water was pumped through tubing, running through the entire suit all over the body, to keep the body from getting over heated.

The process of getting suited up was complicated and technical. While it originally took over 50 minutes to dress the actors when filming began, by the mid-way point the technique had been pared down to 20 minutes. And once the helmets were screwed onto the suits, everything had to be working perfectly.

In addition to the air and oxygen circulating through the sealed suits, the helmets were equipped with unique lighting as well as microphones and radios, so the actors could communicate with each other and the director.

Special, throne-like chairs were built for the actors while waiting on set in their spacesuits. The chairs had low-level back rests to support the weight of the heavy backpacks attached to the suits.

"The spacesuits are incredibly hot and very heavy. You have to be in pretty good shape to work in them," says Tim Robbins.

Jerry O'Connell loved them. "It was a real process to suit up in those outfits," he says, "But when I got that suit on, I felt like a super hero. I couldn't wait to jump into it. I'd have loved to play in it all day and wear it out at night, too."

Connie Nielsen says that once sealed inside, "You can hear yourself. You can hear your own voice. It's almost like being closed inside a fish tank. The only kind of communication that came in was what we could see through the face plate and what we could hear through the ear piece."

Don Cheadle found the spacesuit tremendously helpful. "It was great to be in this environment, where we had suits with lights and mikes and air. The way it sounded different inside the helmet and the way we moved was different. All those things informed my character."

Designing the helmets was a whole other challenge. Not only required to house the microphone, the radio and the air system, the helmets needed to be lit from the inside to illuminate the actors' faces for filming purposes and, as well as being functionally attractive, there was another major aesthetic consideration.

Cinematographer Steve Burum explains, "A regular NASA helmet its like a big fish bowl, in which you see everything reflected. Our problem was that it was okay to see everything surrounding our actors, except for the blue sky, because on Mars, the sky is red. So we had to figure out a way to get the blue reflection out without doing a lot of fancy digital processing."

Working with Ed Verreaux over a two month period, they came up with the ingenious ultimate design that is a half barrel shape that slopes downward, so that the only thing it reflected was the ground, which had been painted red.

Burum also had to develop a lighting system to illuminate the actors' faces. Because many of the spacesuit scenes involved the look of Zero-G and the cast did most of their own stunt work, the system usually used to light other movie helmets wasn't going to work. Burum says, "Those systems tend to be hot and, if there's any action, they might break and harm the actors."

So working with gaffer Alex Skvorzov, he developed a fiberoptic system that wrapped around the top and bottom of the helmet's faceplate. He says, "We used two 12 volt MR16 globes to go through the fiberoptic in a Spectreflux material like you see on stop signs. It's very reflective, so we pasted it to the side of the fiberoptics to get it to shoot back at the actor's face. This was a much better situation. It didn't give off any heat, it couldn't break and the bulb was in the backpack, far away from anyone's eyes."

The helmets also featured Sanken microphones, which, sound mixer Rob Young says, "sound great close up. They are the only ones to handle such proximity. Most other mikes would breakup or collapse that close. We were really happy with them."

The class B uniforms worn by the astronauts combine functionality and aesthetics. Milkovic Hays says, "Pockets all over the pants are necessary in Zero-G. Vests are worn because the Mars hab will be cold. The idea was to look more practical than space age. In 20 years, the look doesn't change that much. Remember what we wore in 1979? I wanted everything to appear real. Astronauts aren't a radical crowd and, therefore, their fashions are subdued. I didn't want the costumes to distract from the human drama."

When she consulted with De Palma about what people on the World Space Station would wear, they agreed that each nation would bring in their best designer in a mild sort of competition. There are 13 different nations represented on the space station and each national uniform is utilitarian and slightly different.

Consulting with Ed Verreaux, the costumes complemented their settings. Everyone but Terri Fisher wears either red, white or blue at the Fourth of July opening sequence. At MMCR (Mars Mission Control Room), which is mostly blue, the staff wears blue. The spacecraft is monochromatic gray and so the astronauts wear gray. The faces are the only warmth in space. In space, they wear nylon fabric, which requires very little maintenance. "This is especially important," Milkovic Hays says, "given that the question of how laundry gets done in space remains an unresolved issue at NASA."

 

Hanging Around in Zero-G

"Real astronauts that I've met have a look in their eyes," says Tim Robbins, "that is unlike any look I've seen in other human's eyes. They've seen something no one else has seen and have been in a place that no one else has been. They have looked at the Earth -- from above. And so their whole idea of up and down is different."

Connie Nielsen reminds that, "All of a sudden, there's no up and there's no down. It's a strange idea. Anything goes."

Only two scenes in "Mission To Mars" take place on Planet Earth with gravity as we know it. Longtime De Palma collaborator, cinematographer Steve Burum says, "I think the most important thing for Brian is always orientation -- where the characters are and where they are in relation to each other. He's always talking about points of view."

De Palma was determined to find unique ways to film space. He says, "You have to find a visual equivalent to get the audience into what it's like to be in zero gravity, where there's no up or down. It's like making a movie about a blind person and trying to get the audience to understand what it's like to navigate through life in the dark or, if you're deaf, without any sound. You have to get the audience into the world that this adventure exists in. You have to give the sense of space as very disorienting and we tried to accomplish that in all the shots where they're in fact traveling in the space ship to Mars. We also wanted to know what it was like when you're in outer space all by yourself, trying to get from one ship to another."

"We had to give the illusion of weightlessness," Burum says. "Brian is very exacting on that kind of stuff, but by using the remote-controlled Super Techno Crane, we could put the camera virtually anywhere and move it anywhere in every dimension there is. We could be anywhere, anytime and there were times we wanted to be disorienting, and there were times when we wanted the audience to know where they were and that helped create the illusion of weightlessness. If we started with people upside down, but they were really right side up in the shot, and vice versa, we didn't have an area for peoples' eyes to grab on to and know what the real orientation was."

"Mission To Mars" features a great many sequences that take place in Zero-G (no gravity). Whether floating weightlessly through the Mars Recovery ship or going EVA (extra-vehicular activity -- i.e. spacewalking), the actors portraying the crew of the rescue mission spent a lot of time "hanging around."

Legendary astronaut Story Musgrave, who has clocked more EVA hours to date than anyone else, was present on set during most of the Zero-G scenes, working closely with the actors to help them master a number of techniques which imitate weightlessness and get the right feel of floating.

Tim Robbins says, "The most important thing was learning the movement of Zero-G, which is nothing goes too fast. If you threw something at my face and I tried to catch it, I could only go so fast."

The cast members serving on the Mars Recovery were required to get into incredible physical shape for the movie, all of them working with trainers because of the fitness level required in the stunts and special effects simulating zero gravity. They had to work especially on their stomachs, backs and legs. "I think they've all been troopers," says Tom Jacobson.

And indeed, the actors did a great deal of their own stunt work.

De Palma was very pleased with their work. "We had a wonderful cast. Not only are they all brilliant actors, there's a lot of tedious physical activities that they had to do that they accomplished with a dancer's grace and concentration. They rehearsed hard and spent lots of time with the special effects and stunt people to make the traveling to Mars convincing. Like actors of old who were trained in dance, these actors, because of their theater training, really took this quite seriously and consulted with our NASA people to make sure that every move they made was correct, which says a lot about their belief and commitment to the movie."

"The most daunting challenge was the sheer volume of flying," says special effects coordinator Garry Elmendorf. "I can't remember another film that's had more." The Zero-G effect was created in various ways. One older technique, which dates back to the 1930s (in fact Elmendorf's grandfather used them to fly the winged monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz"), was improved upon for "Mission To Mars." A small two by four-foot aluminum crate, called a "doghouse," was suspended high above the set on an I-beam track with precision rollers for smooth travel. Inside it, technicians used the steering wheel to control the turning of the actors, who were suspended by cables below.

Both consulting former astronauts Joe Allen and Story Musgrave tried out the harnesses and rigs. Musgrave insisted that though similar, they were more comfortable and realistic than the ones he had used to practice Zero-G at NASA. Allen says, "You can really obtain a posture that looks like a space walking astronaut. I was surprised by how similar it was."

Elmendorf also built an hydraulic pump to raise and lower the astronauts, and also used teeter totters upon which the actors stood with their lower legs strapped on to the device. From the teeter totters, the actors could bob up and down and turn at the same time.

Sinise was the only cast member to have actually experienced Zero-G, having been weightless for 25 second bursts while filming "Apollo 13" on the KC135 aircraft, affectionately nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" because of the adverse reaction most people experience coming back into G force.

"Mission To Mars" required Sinise and his co-stars to simulate Zero-G for a large percentage of filming. In one scene, he did full somersaults on harnesses. "It's difficult, physical work," says Sinise. "It's far more difficult than actually being in Zero-G, because I weigh 170 pounds down here, and in that harness there's all this force. I'd much rather do it in Zero-G than on the wires, but obviously we could not go into space and shoot all of the weightless scenes in this movie," he says.

Jerry O'Connell began training five months before filming began and proudly points out that because of the experience, "I'm in the best shape of my life. I've never been more physically fit." O'Connell thoroughly enjoyed the physicality his role required, however he is quick to observe that he had to endure a little more than some of his co-stars. "Being that I was the young buck on set, Brian [De Palma] would want to do some crazy weightless camera moves and decide that someone should be upside down for the shot. Of course, I was the one voted into that," he jokes.

Some of O'Connell's stunts included working the step master while the three-story Mars Recovery lower hab spun, unstrapping himself and then climbing the ladder and remaining upside down for the entire sequence. He says, "I loved it. Except that as time went on, I could start to feel the veins in my brain starting to burst and my lunch resurfacing. But hey -- pain is temporary -- film is forever," he smiles with his unique sense of humor.

While in tremendous physical shape, Connie Nielsen admits it was difficult working in the harnesses. "For the first month I had aches and pains everywhere, everyday. But we also trained to get stronger so that we could actually sustain them for a long time. We trained every moment we had to build up muscle and become more physically balanced."

Like her co-stars, Nielsen often consulted with Story Musgrave and learned a great deal about moving in Zero-G, not the least of which was how to dance in it. "Your body automatically goes into a special, free flowing state. Apparently, the body always takes this form. Your legs flow up backwards and your hands come up, because they're just weightless. Nothing holds it down. The wires do take a lot of the weight off, but still, we had to make it look effortless."

Terri and Woody's spectacular dance was staged by renowned choreographer Adam Shankman, who worked closely with Story Musgrave. The former astronaut says, "I think we produced the best and most beautiful Zero-G dance anywhere on film or even up there," he motions to the heavens. "We worked right down to choreographing every finger and every toe. It is totally believable in terms of when you push off from a given point what velocity is going to result."

In all, it took 16 special effects technicians to orchestrate the dance sequence. They were required to steer the doghouses and pull the pulleys for the wire work and operate the crane arms for the teeter totters in the astonishing scene in which Tim Robbins and Connie Nielsen dance, while Gary Sinise floats into the airlock and Jerry O'Connell keeps time hanging upside down.

Stunt coordinator Jeff Habberstad and his team began testing and training for the specifics of Zero-G three months before filming began. They also worked closely with Story Musgrave to understand the dynamics of Zero-G and, even though the cast did over 80 per cent of their own stunt work, the stunt team would test the equipment with the special effects department, work out and rehearse the movements required for each scene in Zero-G and then work closely with the actors for them to get the movements down. Habberstad says, "Once we made sure the actors were comfortable in their helmets and harnesses and that there was no claustrophobia nor fear of heights, it didn't take us very long to really get into the swing of things.

"We were all really lucky to have the cast that we had," Habberstad says. "They were ready to learn and they never complained about having to rehearse and be on harnesses for hours on end."

He points out that Gary Sinise broke a record of sorts. "He actually has the record for the longest single time of hanging for anyone, including the stunt people. He hung for over three and a half hours without ever coming down. I would guess that's probably the longest anyone has ever hung from wires for one extended period of time for a movie -- there's rarely reason to hang anyone for that long," he says. "But with that suit weighing over 60 pounds, he was more comfortable staying up there in between set ups than trying to get comfortable down on the ground."

Surprisingly, the actors were much more comfortable doing Zero-G in their spacesuits than in their class B uniforms. Elmendorf developed a special harness that used free-floating bearings, connected to steel bands around the actors' waists. Inside the spacesuits, the actors were able to wear much more padding than they could in their other uniforms. "They preferred to hang in the wires, rather than standing on the teeter totters, so they didn't have to support the weight of their spacesuits," Elmendorf adds.

The actors agreed. "It's a little bit easier," Jerry O'Connell says, "because we can get away with wearing harnesses and stuff under the bulky spacesuits. It's harder to conceal the harnesses and flying rigs where you're wearing tighter outfits."

"Everything in the movie has been physical. But we found it was a whole lot easier to take the weight of the pack with the wires," Robbins says.

"It's been a lot of fun, Zero-G," O'Connell says. But sometimes floating in Zero-G, where he was at times suspended from cables for over an hour, he would nap during set ups. "It was like being back in the womb," he quips. "I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'd power nap in that thing. It was very comfortable." O'Connell's co-stars were quick to add that he snores.

Breaking the Martian Code

Capcom: Capsule Communicator -- the point person at Mission Control who regularly communicates with the astronauts

ERV: Earth Return Vehicle -- the small robotic space ship which lands on Mars before the astronauts and in which the astronauts will return to Earth

EVA: Extra-vehicular Activity -- spacewalking

MMCR:Mars Mission Control Room (nicknamed Micker)

REMO: Resupply Module

SIMA: Saturn Imaging Probe

Zero-G:No gravity

 

Martian Facts

Mars is easily visible with the naked eye when in the night sky. Its brightness varies greatly according to its position to the Earth. The fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest, Mars' orbit is 227,940,000 kilometers from the sun and its diameter is 6,794 kilometers. Although much smaller than Earth, the surface area of Mars is about the same as the land surface area of Earth. About once every two years, Mars passes within about 55 million kilometers of Earth and this is its closest approach, called ‘opposition.' Due to the nature of the orbits of Earth and Mars, suitable launch windows occur only every two years.

Known since prehistoric times, Mars is the Greek Ares, God of War, and the month of March is named after the planet.

Next to Earth, Mars has the most varied and interesting terrain of any of the planets in our solar system, some very spectacular. Rising 24 kilometers (78,000 feet) high, Olympus Mons is the largest mountain in the Solar System. Valles Marineris is a system of canyons, roughly the size of the continental United States, measuring 4,000 kilometers long and two to seven kilometers deep. Hellas Planitia is an impact crater, over six kilometers deep and 2,000 kilometers in diameter. Much of the Martian surface is very old and cratered, but there are also much younger valleys, ridges, hills and plains.

Early in its history, Mars was much more like Earth. As with Earth almost all of its carbon dioxide was used up to form carbonate rocks. But lacking the Earth's plate tectonics, Mars is unable to recycle any of this carbon dioxide back into its atmosphere and so cannot sustain a significant greenhouse effect. The surface of Mars is therefore much colder than the Earth would be at that distance from the Sun.

Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed mostly of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide, plus nitrogen, argon and traces of oxygen and water. The average pressure on the surface of Mars is only about seven millibars (less than one per cent of Earth's), but it varies greatly with altitude from almost 9 millibars in the deepest basins to about 1 millibar at the top of Olympus Mons. But it is thick enough to support very strong winds and vast dust storms that on occasion engulf the entire planet for months. Mars' thin atmosphere produces a greenhouse effect but it is only enough to raise the surface temperature by five degrees (K); much less than what we see on Venus and Earth. Mars has permanent ice caps at both poles composed mostly of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice). Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, which orbit close to its surface.

There is a "face" on Mars, located in the Cydonia Mensae region. Although there is a consensus among planetary scientists that there isn't enough data to make a definitive analysis, it is probably a combination of a natural feature and unusual lighting conditions.

The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others followed, including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to land on Mars, and the two Viking landers in 1976. Ending a long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on July 4, 1997.

 

ABOUT THE CAST

GARY SINISE plays astronaut Jim McConnell whose entire life's work has been devoted to becoming the first man on Mars, but instead he becomes the co-pilot on a more important mission, to rescue the Mars One team.

His portrayal of Lt. Dan in "Forrest Gump" made him a mainstream movie star, and earned him nominations for an Academy Award® and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He received the Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Board of Review and the Commander's Award from the Disabled American Veterans. He then went on to take starring roles in the acclaimed "Apollo 13" opposite Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon; the thriller "Ransom" with Mel Gibson and Rene Russo; and in Brian De Palma's psychological thriller "Snake Eyes." He most recently appeared in Frank Darabont's "The Green Mile."

Mr. Sinise's forthcoming films include John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games," Gary Fleder's sci-fi thriller "Impostor," "Bruno," a comedy-drama directed by Shirley Maclaine; and the ensemble drama "All the Rage." His additional film credits include "A Midnight Clear," Kevin Spacey's directorial debut "Albino Alligator," "Jack the Bear" and "The Quick and the Dead."

He has also made his mark as a feature film director with "Of Mice and Men," which he co-produced and co-starred in with John Malkovich, and "Miles from Home" starring Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson, Helen Hunt and John Malkovich. Both were screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

On television, he recently starred in the Showtime adaptation of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning play "That Championship Season" directed by Paul Sorvino. Other television credits include award-winning performances in "Truman" (Golden Globe, CableACE and Screen Actors Guild) and John Frankenheimer's "George Wallace" (Screen Actors Guild, Emmy and CableACE), as well as "My Name Is Bill W." with James Woods and Stephen King's "The Stand."

At the age of 18, the Chicago native co-founded The Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago (along with Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry), where he served as artistic director for seven years. He has since starred in over a dozen productions at the renowned theatre including the role of Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath," for which he garnered a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award; as well as "True West," "Balm in Gilead," "Streamers" and "The Caretaker." He received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Marsha Norman's "Getting Out" at Chicago's Wisdom Theatre. Most recently, he starred as Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar named Desire" and in spring 2000 he will star in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at Steppenwolf.

In 1996, he directed Sam Shepard's "Buried Child" which kicked off Steppenwolf's 20th anniversary and continued with a successful run on Broadway where it was nominated for five Tony's, including one for Best Director. He also directed "True West" at Steppenwolf and in New York, where he won an Obie Award for directing. In Chicago, his production of "Orphans" earned him a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Director. The same production enjoyed a successful run in New York and also in London. His other directing efforts include "Tracers," "Frank's Wild Years," "The Miss Firecracker Contest," "Waiting for the Parade," "Action," "Road to Nirvana" and "Landscape of the Body" at the Second Stage in New York.

DON CHEADLE (Mission Commander Luke Graham) was named Best Supporting Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics for his breakout performance opposite Denzel Washington in "Devil in a Blue Dress."

He received an Emmy Award nomination and a Golden Globe award for his remarkable portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's "The Rat Pack." He also earned an Emmy nomination for his role in HBO's "A Lesson Before Dying," alongside Cicely Tyson and Mekhi Phifer. He was also seen in Warren Beatty's "Bulworth," for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination, and "Out of Sight," the Steven Soderbergh-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, alongside George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez and Ving Rhames.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Cheadle later relocated to Lincoln, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado and eventually settled in Los Angeles. He attended the prestigious CalArts in Valencia, California, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. With the encouragement of his college friends, Cheadle auditioned for a variety of film and television roles while attending school and landed a recurring role on the hit series "Fame."

Cheadle was then cast in the feature film "Hamburger Hill," in the role of Washburn, opposite Dylan McDermott and directed by John Irvin. His additional film credits include "Boogie Nights," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, "Volcano," opposite Tommy Lee Jones, the John Singleton-directed "Rosewood," for which he also received an NAACP Image Award nomination, "Colors," and "Meteor Man," directed by Robert Townsend.

His stage credits include roles in "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Liquid Skin" at The Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis, "Cymbeline" at The New York Shakespeare Festival, "‘Tis Pity She's a Whore" at Chicago's Goodman Theater, and Athol Fugard's South African play "Blood Knot" at the Complex Theater in Hollywood.

Well-known for his two-year stint in the role of district attorney John Littleton on the critically acclaimed series "Picket Fences," Cheadle's other television credits include a starring role in HBO's "Rebound: The Legend of Earl ‘The Goat' Manigault," directed by Eriq LaSalle; a series regular role on "The Golden Palace" and a recurring role on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."

A talented musician who plays saxophone, writes music and sings, Don Cheadle is also an accomplished director with the stage productions of "Cincinnati Man" at the Attic Theater and the critically acclaimed "The Trip" at Friends and Artists Theater in Hollywood.

In addition, Cheadle is also currently focused on writing a screenplay as well as trying to find a home for his most current stage production entitled "Groomed." The play made its Los Angeles debut at last year's New Works Festival at the Mark Taper Forum.

Cheadle resides in Los Angeles and is currently preparing to direct a movie for Jersey Films.

CONNIE NIELSEN (Mars Rescue Mission specialist Dr. Terri Fisher) recently completed production on the Ridley Scott epic "Gladiator" in which she stars opposite Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Richard Harris.

She also starred in the recent "Soldier," a futuristic story about the American Force's fighting elite. It was her performances as the pioneer woman Sandra, who nurses Kurt Russell's character -- a veteran soldier -- back to health, that vaulted Nielsen to her leading-lady status. She also recently completed filming "Dark Summer," co-starring French actor Jean-Hughes Anglade.

Her breakthrough performance came in 1997 as the devil's daughter in "The Devil's Advocate," starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. Additionally, she made memorable appearances in the Touchstone Pictures comedy "Rushmore," with Bill Murray and "Permanent Midnight," opposite Ben Stiller. Other film credits include "Voyage," with Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts, and the foreign film "Le Paradis Absolument," with Christopher Malavoy.

Since the age of 15, Nielsen has been captivating audiences with her charisma. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nielsen began her acting career working alongside her mother in local revue and variety shows. At 18, she headed to Paris to continue her pursuit of acting, which led her to further work and study in Rome, Milan and South Africa. In addition to being an accomplished actress, Nielsen is also a trained singer, dancer and is fluent in English, German, Danish, Swedish, French and Italian.

She studied acting in Italy and New York, where she now lives.

JERRY O'CONNELL's (Mission Specialist Phil Ohlmyer) career began at the tender age of 11, when he made his debut starring in Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me." Born in New York City, O'Connell continued acting as a teenager starring in the ABC series "Camp Wilder." He then attended film school at New York University.

In 1995, O'Connell was cast as the parallel universe-traveling Quinn Mallory in Fox's hit series "Sliders." He starred in the series for four seasons, also serving as producer during his final year, when he also wrote and directed several episodes. His other television appearances include the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations "The Room Upstairs" and "The Hole in the Sky," as well as the epic NBC miniseries "The Sixties."

O'Connell's feature films include "Calendar Girl," "Joe's Apartment," Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire" opposite Tom Cruise, Wes Craven's "Scream 2" and "Body Shots." His next projects are starring roles in two romantic comedies: "Buying the Cow," and "First Daughter." The latter is especially exciting for O'Connell because he also wrote the "First Daughter" screenplay.

KIM DELANEY (Maggie McConnell) currently stars as Detective Diane Russell on ABC's acclaimed series, "NYPD Blue," for which she received an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, as well as two Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actress in a Television Drama. Delaney most recently completed filming William Friedkin's "Rules of Engagement" opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, she began modeling during her senior year in high school. After graduation, she moved to New York and studied acting with renowned coach Bill Esper, before landing the role of Jenny Gardner on the ABC daytime drama, "All My Children." During that time, she also performed in several theatrical productions, including off-Broadway's "Loving Reno."

She has starred in several well-received movies for television, including the recent "Devil to Pay," opposite Thomas Gibson, which she also produced. She has also been seen in "All Lies End in Murder," "Closer and Closer," "Tall Dark and Deadly," "Disappearance of Christina," "Twilight," "Lady Boss," "Broken Chord," "Tales from the Crypt," "Something is out There" and "Cracked Up." Her other television credits include "The Fifth Corner" and "Tour of Duty."

Her feature film projects include Chris Cain's "That Was Then, This is Now" and "Campus Man," as well as "Delta Force," "The Drifter," "Body Parts," "The Force" and "Darkman II."

Kim Delaney currently resides in Los Angeles.

ELISE NEAL (Debra Graham) stars in the ABC comedy "The Hughleys." She recently completed filming a starring role in the independent feature, "The Rising Place" opposite Frances Fisher and Laurel Hollowman. She will next be seen starring in the independent drama, "Restaurant," which chronicles the lives of a group of twentysomethings and also stars Adrien Brody and Malcolm Jamal-Warner.

She also appeared on the big screen in "Scream 2," starring opposite Neve Campbell as Hallie, a college student who becomes targeted by a vicious copycat killer stalking her roommate. Her other film credits include John Singleton's "Rosewood," starring opposite Ving Rhames, the Chris Tucker comedy "Money Talks," "How to Be a Player," "Tales of the City," "There Was a Little Boy," "Risky Behavior" and "Let It Be Me."

Her television credits include starring in "Sea Quest 2032" and the ABC daytime drama "Loving," as well as guest-starring on series such as "Chicago Hope," "High Incident" and "Law & Order."

Born and raised in Tennessee, Neal resides in Los Angeles.

PETER OUTERBRIDGE (Mars One Cosmonaut Sergei Kirov) is a multi-talented actor whose career spans film, television and the stage.

Following filming on "Mission To Mars," Outerbridge went on to star opposite Cybill Shepherd in "Marine Life." His other feature films include "Kissed," for which he was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Actor for his performance opposite Molly Parker. Other films include the acclaimed "Better than Chocolate," "The Michelle Apartments" with Henry Czerny; "Cool Runnings" with John Candy, "Escape Velocity," "Fools Die Fast," "Paris, France," as well as "For the Moment" and "Replikator."

Outerbridge's first roles included guest-starring on such series as "21 Jump Street," "The Commish," "The Hidden Room" and "Forever Knight." Recent guest appearances include "Road to Avonlea," "Lonesome Dove," "Highlander," and an episode of "The Outer Limits" for which he earned a Gemini nomination.

He was also nominated for a Gemini for his performance in the TV movie "The James Mink Story," with Louis Gossett Jr. and Kate Nelligan. Other telefilms include "Closer and Closer," "Falling For You," "Another Woman," and "Drop Dead Gorgeous." Most recently, he appeared regularly in the series "Michael Hayes" and had a recurring role in "Millennium."

On the stage, Outerbridge has been seen in "Claudius" as Hamlet, and in such works as "The Stone Angel," "Moon for the Misbegotten," and "Trafford Tanzi."

Peter Outerbridge was born in Toronto, Canada and currently resides in Los Angeles.

JILL TEED (Renee Cote) has enjoyed a diverse career in motion pictures and television. Her feature film credits include "Fear of Flying," "The Final Cut," "Dangerous Indiscretion" and "Bad Company."

Her extensive television credits include "The Outer Limits," "The Sentinel," "The Highlander," "Sliders," "The X-Files" and "Party of Five." Teed also starred in several movies of the week, including NBC's "Seasons of the Heart," the miniseries "Creature" and ABC's highly rated "Tailhook."

Teed lives in Vancouver, Canada with her daughter.

KAVAN SMITH (Mars One Mission Specialist Nicholas Willis) starred in the made for television film "Fearless," the CBS miniseries "Titanic," "Dead Man's Gun" for Showtime and the ABC movie of the week "Alibi." Smith also appeared on series such as "The Outer Limits," "The Crow" and "The Sentinel."

Smith was born in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. He makes his home in Vancouver.

TIM ROBBINS (Commander Woody Blake) is one of the film industry's most versatile actors, writers and directors.

Most recently Robbins wrote, produced and directed Touchstone Pictures' "Cradle Will Rock," which opened to critical praise including an award for Special Achievement in Filmmaking from the National Board of Review.

As a filmmaker, Robbins directed, produced and wrote the screenplay to the highly acclaimed film, "Dead Man Walking." Adapted from the book by Sister Helen Prejean, Robbins received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Director along with four awards at the Berlin Film Festival, the Christopher Award and two Humanitas Awards. The film also earned a nomination for Best Actor for Sean Penn, as well as the Academy Award® for Best Actress for Susan Sarandon. This followed his directing and screenwriting debut for the award winning political satire, "Bob Roberts." Robbins, who also starred in the film and co-wrote the songs, was lauded for his work on the "mockumentary" about a dubious right-wing candidate's race for the Senate. "Bob Roberts" was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won three awards including Best Film at the Boston Film Festival. Robbins also executive produced "The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera," a documentary about filmmaker Sam Fuller, which won the 1996 CableACE Award for Best Documentary.

As an actor, Robbins received critical acclaim for his portrayal of the amoral studio chief in Robert Altman's "The Player," a performance that earned him the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. His starring performance in "Bob Roberts" also earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

Other recent acting performances include Mark Pellington's "Arlington Road" with Jeff Bridges and Joan Cusack, "Nothing To Lose" with Martin Lawrence, and Frank Darabont's Oscar®-nominated "The Shawshank Redemption" with Morgan Freeman. Among Robbins' other notable performances are Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" and "Pret-A-Porter" opposite Julia Roberts, Tony Bill's "Five Corners" with Jodie Foster and John Turturro, the Coen Brothers' "The Hudsucker Proxy" opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh, Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" and Ron Shelton's "Bull Durham" with Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner.

Robbins will next begin working on MGM's "AntiTrust."

In 1981, Robbins co-founded the Actors Gang, the highly acclaimed and respected Los Angeles theater ensemble dedicated to the production of vivid, original and provocative theater. The Actors Gang has received numerous Drama-Logue, LA Weekly and Ovation Awards, and in 1988, received the prestigious Margaret Hartford Award for "continued excellence." Robbins himself was honored with the LA Weekly Award for his direction of the Gang's debut production, a midnight performance of "Ubu Roi," and earned a nomination for Best Director from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for the group's production of Brecht's "The Good Woman of Setzuan." As producer, Robbins is responsible for production with the Actors Gang and still serves as Founding Artistic Director with the group.

 

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

BRIAN DE PALMA (Director) has created a slate of classic suspense thrillers which continue to set standards for visual style. His most recent films include the box-office success "Mission: Impossible," starring Tom Cruise, and "Snake Eyes," starring Nicolas Cage.

Born in Philadelphia, De Palma demonstrated an early gift for science, winning prizes twice at the prestigious National Science Fair. He became interested in drama while studying physics at Columbia University. He began to participate in student theater and went on to make his own short films. Eventually, he switched majors to film studies and continued at the graduate level at Sarah Lawrence College.

De Palma's first feature, the low-budget "The Wedding Party," which he also wrote, marked the film debuts of its stars Robert De Niro and Jill Clayburgh. The director attracted initial attention with the 1968 counter-culture comedy "Greetings," and its sequel, "Hi, Mom!" was released two years later. After De Palma's first studio film, "Get to Know Your Rabbit," he turned his hand to suspense with "Sisters," followed by the rock satire-thriller "Phantom of the Paradise." He then directed "Obsession," but it was his adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie" that marked De Palma's first major box-office hit. For "Carrie," Sissy Spacek was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Actress, and Piper Laurie was nominated for an Academy Award® and Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress.

Films that followed were "The Fury," "Home Movies," "Dressed to Kill," "Blow Out," starring John Travolta, and the gangster epic "Scarface," starring Al Pacino, which redefined the genre, "Body Double" and the comedy "Wise Guys," starring Danny De Vito and Harvey Keitel, De Palma then directed the blockbuster "The Untouchables," starring Kevin Costner and Robert De Niro, and for which Sean Connery won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor. Among Mr. De Palma's other films are "Casualties of War," starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn, "Bonfire of the Vanities," starring Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis, "Raising Cain," starring John Lithgow, and "Carlito's Way," starring Al Pacino.

LOWELL CANNON (Story by) was born in Henderson, Nevada and raised in Los Angeles where he attended the prestigious Harvard School. He went on to earn his bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Cannon began his film industry career as a script reader for New Line Cinema, HBO and director Ridley Scott before using his own talents to write screenplays. Although he sold his first script, "The Enemy" to Turner Pictures, "Mission To Mars" is his first screen credit. He is currently working on numerous other film projects.

JIM THOMAS & JOHN THOMAS (Story by/Screenplay by) are brothers and have been writing partners for 15 years. Their first spec screenplay, "Predator," was written on a Venice beach and sold to Twentieth Century Fox, without the benefit of an agent or an attorney.

They also penned "The Rescue" for Touchstone Pictures, "Predator 2," "Executive Decision" and received story credit for "Wild Wild West." They wrote the pilot for the TV series "Hard Time on Planet Earth," and a "Tales from the Crypt" episode directed by Bob Zemeckis and starring Kirk Douglas. They are currently adapting a novel, a futuristic thriller, for Warner Brothers, to be produced by Denise Di Novi.

GRAHAM YOST (Screenplay by) served as screenwriter on "Speed," "Broken Arrow" and "Hard Rain."

Born in Toronto, Canada in 1959, Yost's writing career began in New York in the early eighties when he wrote for Encyclopedia Britannica, Soap Opera Digest and Facts on File.

He was a writer, story editor and head writer for Nickelodeon's "Hey Dude." He also wrote for ABC's "Full House" and was a writer and story editor on NBC's political satire, "The Powers that Be."

Yost served as a producer on Tom Hanks' Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." He received Emmy and Writers Guild of America Award nominations for writing the "Apollo One" episode. He also directed one of the "Earth to the Moon" episodes -- "Spider," about the building of the Lunar Module.

Yost is currently writing an episode of Hanks' next miniseries for HBO, the World War II epic "Band of Brothers," which follows one company of paratroopers from training, through Normandy, to the end of the war.

Film industry veteran TOM JACOBSON (Producer) most recently produced "Mighty Joe Young," the first release from The Jacobson Company, the production house he established in 1995. Based at The Walt Disney Studios, the company has 15 projects in various stages of development and production.

Before starting his production company, Jacobson spent three years as president of worldwide production for Twentieth Century Fox. In this capacity, he oversaw all feature film development and production activities at the main Fox production division. For three years prior, he served as executive vice president of production at the studio. At Fox, Jacobson was instrumental in the success of such blockbusters as "Home Alone," "Home Alone 2," "Die Hard with a Vengeance," "Nine Months," both "Hot Shots" movies, "A Walk in the Clouds," "Speed" and "True Lies."

He also oversaw development and production of some of the strongest performing titles of 1995-1996, including "Waiting to Exhale," "Broken Arrow," "The Truth about Cats and Dogs" and the huge sensation "Independence Day."

Before joining Fox, Jacobson was president of John Hughes Entertainment, where he produced, with Hughes, such films as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Uncle Buck." He was also executive producer of "The Great Outdoors."

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Jacobson studied engineering at Yale University before moving to Los Angeles to begin a career in film. He got his start by working in various production capacities for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. From there, he became a production manager for such films as "Cat People" and "Best Friends," as well as the associate producer of "Flashdance," "Top Secret," "Thief of Hearts" and "Explorers."

SAM MERCER (Executive Producer) most recently executive produced Hollywood Pictures' box office hit "The Sixth Sense," starring Bruce Willis.

After seven years as a production executive at The Walt Disney Company, Mercer began his independent producing career in 1993 with "Congo," directed by Frank Marshall and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Mercer. Then followed "The Relic," which he produced with Gale Anne Hurd.

Mercer joined The Walt Disney Company in 1986, where he supervised such films as "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Three Fugitives," and "Dead Poets Society." In 1989, he was promoted to vice president of motion picture production for The Walt Disney Company's then-fledgling production entity Hollywood Pictures. Under the Hollywood banner, Mercer was responsible for such releases as "Quiz Show," "The Joy Luck Club," "Born Yesterday," "Swing Kids," "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" and "Arachnophobia."

Earlier, Mercer had a successful career as a freelance location manager and unit production manager, with credits including "The Witches of Eastwick," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Stripes," "Swing Shift" and "The Escape Artist." He also served as associate producer/unit manager at KCET-TV in Los Angeles, where he received a Daytime Emmy Award for the live presentation of the San Francisco Opera's production of "La Gioconda."

In addition to his career as an independent producer, Mercer is an elected member of the Los Angeles Film Development Committee and a member of the Director's Guild of America.

Born in Boston, Sam Mercer is a graduate of the Groton School in Massachusetts and Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Academy Award®-nominated cinematographer STEPHEN H. BURUM, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) is a frequent collaborator of Brian De Palma's, having shot seven of the director's previous films. These are "Snake Eyes," "Mission: Impossible," "Carlito's Way," "Raising Cain," "Casualties of War," "Body Double," and "The Untouchables," for which Burum was nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.

Burum won the prestigious ASC Award and was nominated for an Academy Award® for "Hoffa," directed by Danny DeVito, and was also nominated for an ASC Award for DeVito's "War of the Roses."

Among his other films are Francis Ford Coppola's "Rumble Fish," "The Outsiders" and second unit on "Apocalypse Now." Burum's other credits include the recent "Mystery Men," "The Shadow," "He Said, She Said," "Eight Million Ways to Die," "The Bride" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

Born in Visalia, California, Burum studied theatre arts at UCLA. His filmmaking career began as director of photography on a "Wonderful World of Disney" production, "My Family is a Menagerie," which also marked Roy Disney's producing debut. From there, he went on to shoot feature films.

ED VERREAUX (Production Designer) has contributed to the look of a slate of films known for their visual effects.

Born in Long Beach, California, Verreaux studied fine arts at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, where he specialized in painting and printmaking. Verreaux's first film work was as an apprentice animator with the legendary Chuck Jones. From there, he went on to work with Robert Able and Associates, where he worked on visual effects for commercials and, eventually, pre-visualization for the first "Star Trek" movie.

As a freelance illustrator, Verreaux worked extensively with Steven Spielberg, storyboarding "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and serving as concept illustrator on "E.T." He also illustrated for such Spielberg films as "Poltergeist," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Twilight Zone: The Movie," "The Color Purple," "Empire of the Sun," "and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." His other illustrator credits include "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," "Big Trouble in Little China" and "Twins."

Verreaux went on to serve as assistant art director on "Back to the Future Part II" and "Part III" and "Scrooged." He was art director on Clint Eastwood's "The Rookie," "The Distinguished Gentleman," "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid," "Blue Chips," "Casper," and "How to Make an American Quilt." Most recently, he was production designer on "Contact."

"Mission To Mars" marks Academy Award®-winning editor PAUL HIRSCH's A.C.E. eleventh collaboration with director Brian De Palma.

Hirsch began his editing career on De Palma's "Hi, Mom!," and he went on to edit "Sisters," "Phantom of the Paradise," "Obsession" and "Carrie." Following a five-film exclusive stint with De Palma, Hirsch went on to edit the landmark "Star Wars," for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Editing.

His many other credits include such films as "The Empire Strikes Back," "Footloose," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Secret of My Success," "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," "Steel Magnolias," "Falling Down" and, most recently, "Mighty Joe Young."

Hirsch also edited Brian De Palma's "Raising Cain," "Blow Out," "The Fury" and "Mission: Impossible," and was editorial consultant on "Home Movies."

Born in New York, Paul Hirsch now makes his home in Los Angeles.

HOYT YEATMAN (Visual Effects Supervisor) has been the dynamic force behind Dream Quest Images' innovative visual effects during its 20 year history. He has contributed to the conception, design, supervision and production of special effects for more than 150 motion picture, television, and commercial projects.

His dramatic use of miniature and underwater blue screen photography in the 1989 film "The Abyss" won Yeatman an Oscar® for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. He was visual effects supervisor on Academy Award®-nominated "Mighty Joe Young," as well as "The Rock" and "Crimson Tide." Yeatman's collaboration with Eastman Kodak on the development of a new visual effects film stock which was used on "Mighty Joe Young" resulted in a 1999 Technical Achievement Oscar.

Yeatman attended UCLA where he studied animation and film. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1977, Yeatman joined the effects crew of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," an experience which springboarded him into work on the animation and special effects for NBC's "Laugh-In" specials, "Buck Rogers" and "Battlestar Galactica." Following this, Yeatman was recruited by the production team for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," the first of a series of highly successful films based on Gene Roddenberry's television series phenomenon "Star Trek." It was on this film, that he and the co-founders of Dream Quest Images, first met and planned the creation of their own visual effects company.

JOHN KNOLL (Visual Effects Supervisor) brings a special expertise and innovation in computer graphics to the creation of visual effects.

He has served as visual effects supervisor on such films as "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace," "Deep Blue Sea," "Star Trek: First Contact," "Star Trek Generations" and Brian De Palma's "Mission: Impossible."

He was also the Computer Graphics project designer on "The Abyss," for which ILM was honored with its tenth Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects. Early in his career, Knoll served as motion control camera operator on films such as "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," "Empire of the Sun," "Inner Space," and "Willow."

In addition, Knoll and his brother are the authors of Photoshop, a high-end image processing program for computers, which allows users extensive creative control over the enhancement and editing of images.

SANJA MILKOVIC HAYS (Costume Designer) has designed costumes for a number of space-themed motion pictures, including "Star Trek: Insurrection," and she served as assistant costume designer on films such as "Independence Day" and "Stargate."

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, Milkovic Hays studied architecture at the University of Zagreb. After working at construction for a while, she considered a film career and apprenticed in costume design at Zagreb's famed Jadran Studios, where she worked on a variety of films.

She came to the United States in 1987, where Joseph Porro became her mentor, and she went on to assist him with costume design on such films as "Tombstone" and "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie," in addition to "Stargate" and "Independence Day." Her work with him clearly demonstrated a special talent with space and science fiction, and she went on to design costumes for "Spaced Invaders" and "Blade."

Sanja Milkovic Hays has also designed costumes for such films as "Masque of the Red Death," "The Last Hour," "And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird," "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag," and the recent fantasy epic "Beowulf." For television, her credits include the telefilms "Based on an Untrue Story," "Doing Time on Maple Drive," "The Sitter" and "Buried Alive."

ENNIO MORRICONE (Music by) has written some of the most memorable film scores of all time. His compositions have earned him four Academy Award® nominations, two Golden Globe Awards and four nominations, five British Academy Awards, three Grammy nominations and a slate of other honors for a body of work that includes over 350 films.

He previously scored two Brian De Palma films. Morricone's music for "The Untouchables" was nominated for an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe, and won the British Academy Award, and "Casualties of War" was also nominated for a Golden Globe.

Morricone's other Oscar® nominations were for "The Mission," "Days of Heaven" and "Bugsy." Other unforgettable film scores include those for such seminal Westerns as "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly," "Duck You Sucker" and "Once Upon a Time in the West." His many other credits include "Once Upon a Time in America," "Luna," "Frantic," "Fat Man and Little Boy," "Cinema Paradiso," for which he won a British Academy Award®, Franco Zeffirelli's "Hamlet," "In the Line of Fire," "Disclosure," and "U-turn." He was nominated for Grammy Awards for his compositions for "Wolf," "The Star Maker" and "Bulworth." Most recently, he scored Adrian Lyne's "Lolita" and Giuseppe Tornatore's "The Legend of 1900" for which he received his most recent Golden Globe Award.

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, Italy, where he continues to reside.

DAVID GOYER (Co-Producer) is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1988 with a degree in screenwriting. He subsequently wrote the 1990 Deran Sarafian-directed action/adventure feature "Death Warrant" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. His additional credits as a screenwriter include "Robert A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters," "The Crow II: City of Angels," "Blade" and "Dark City." He also wrote the upcoming "Atomic Dog," and served as writer and producer of the soon-to-be-released "Phoenix Without Ashes" and "Blade II."

For television, Mr. Goyer created and wrote the series "Sleepwalkers," which he also executive produced. In addition, he was the writer and executive producer of the pilot for "Enemy," and wrote the pilot for HBO's "Dream of Doom."

Mr. Goyer lives in Los Angeles.

JUSTIS GREENE (Co-Producer) has been actively involved in the film industry for 30 years. He most recently served as co-producer on the Walt Disney Pictures' comedies "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Mr. Magoo." Greene's other credits include producing the TV series "The Outer Limits," and co-producing Walt Disney Pictures' "Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco" and "White Fang II: Myth of the White Wolf," as well as "The Sixth Man."

Mr. Greene also served as associate producer on "Another Stakeout" for Touchstone Pictures, and he produced the last two seasons of "Neon Rider" for Canada's CTV network.

JIM WEDAA (Co-Producer), originally from Yorba Linda, California, attended the School of Motion Pictures and Television at UCLA and received a bachelor's degree in 1987.

Jim began his career in 1988 at Weintraub Entertainment Group in the Story Department, but soon moved over to Hollywood Pictures, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, as a production executive. Working under Ricardo Mestres and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jim served at Hollywood Pictures until 1994 and worked on such films as "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "Dangerous Minds," "The Air Up There," "Bound By Honor," "Judge Dredd," and "The Color of Night."

Leaving in 1994, Jim formed his own production company, The Parallax Corporation, and through it sold fifteen projects to various studios as well as producing such movies as the Universal release "Black Dog," starring Patrick Swayze and "The Red Team," with Patrick Muldoon and Cathy Moriarty.

In 1996 Jim joined The Jacobson Company as executive vice president of production where he has been involved with acquiring, developing and packaging projects.

TED TALLY (Associate Producer) won the Academy Award® for his screenplay of "The Silence of the Lambs," as well as Writers Guild and Chicago Film Critics Awards. His other feature screenplay credits include "Before & After" starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson, "White Palace," starring Susan Sarandon and James Spader, and "The Juror," starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin He also wrote the screenplay for the upcoming highly anticipated "All the Pretty Horses" adapted from Cormack McCarthy's award-winning novel. That movie stars Matt Damon and was directed by Billy Bob Thornton.

His first play, "Terra Nova," received a Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award and an Obie Award. His other plays include "Hooters," "Coming Attractions" which won the New York Outer Critics Circle Award, "Silver Linings" and "Little Footsteps."

Tally co-wrote the CBS made-for-television film "The Father Clements Story," starring Louis Gossett, Jr. and Carroll O'Connor, for which he won a Christopher Award. His other television credits include "The Comedy Zone" and productions of two of his plays, "Hooters" and "Terra Nova," which was presented by the BBC.

An honors graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Drama, at each of which he has also taught, Tally lives with his wife and two children in Pennsylvania.

Former NASA Astronaut STORY MUSGRAVE (Spacewalking Consultant/ Shaman) is a mathematician, statistician, operations analyst, computer programmer, chemist, surgeon, physiologist, biophysicist, pilot, writer and a whole lot more. A veteran of six spaceflights, he has spent 1,281 hours in space; spacewalked 28 hours and served as an astronaut with NASA for 30 years, each of these an extraordinary record in its own right.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Musgrave considers Lexington, Kentucky his hometown. He entered the United States Marine Corps in 1953, and served as an aviation electrician, instrument technician and an aircraft crew chief while completing duty assignments in Korea, Japan, Hawaii and aboard the carrier USS WASP in the Far East.

He has flown 17,700 hours in 160 different types of civilian and military aircraft, including 7,500 hours in jet aircraft. He has earned FAA ratings for instructor, instrument instructor, glider instructor, and airline transport pilot, and U.S. Air Force Wings. An accomplished parachutist, he has made more than 500 free falls including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics.

He was employed as a mathematician and operations analyst by the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York in 1958. He served a surgical internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington from 1964 to 1965, and continued there as a U.S. Air Force post-doctoral fellow, working in aerospace medicine and physiology, and as a National Heart Institute post-doctoral fellow, teaching and doing research in cardiovascular and exercise physiology. From 1967 to 1990, he continued clinical and scientific training as a part-time surgeon at the Denver General hospital and as a part-time professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He has written 25 scientific papers in the areas of aerospace medicine and physiology, temperature regulation, exercise physiology, and clinical surgery.

Musgrave was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967. He completed astronaut academic training and then worked on the design and development of the Skylab Program. He was the backup scientist-pilot for the first Skylab mission and was a CAPCOM for the second and third Skylab missions. He participated in the design and development of all Space Shuttle spacewalking equipment, including spacesuits, life support systems, airlocks; and manned maneuvering units. From 1979 to 1982, and 1983 to 1984, he was assigned as a test and verification pilot in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory at JSC. He served as a spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) for over 25 space shuttle flights. He was a mission specialist on STS-6, the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Challenger; STS-51F/Spacelab-2, the first pallet-only Spacelab mission; STS-33 on the Space Shuttle Discovery on a classified mission operating payloads for the Department of Defense; and STS-44, which deployed a Defense Support Program satellite. Musgrave was the payload commander and lead spacewalker on STS-61, the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, during which he performed three spacewalks to restore the HST to its full capabilities. Most recently, he served as mission specialist on STS-80 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1996. After 30 years service with the organization, Story Musgrave resigned from NASA.

A popular fixture on the international lecture circuit, Story Musgrave is currently pursuing artistic interests which include writing, photography, television and theater. He is a Disney fellow and lives in Kissimmee, Florida.

MATTHEW P. GOLOMBEK (Mars Consultant): As the Mars Pathfinder Project Scientist (chief scientist for the mission), Dr. Golombek was responsible for the overall science content of the mission and was the primary interface between the project, the science community and NASA Headquarters. He chaired the Mars Pathfinder Project Science Group (the oversight group for the roughly 70 scientists working on the mission), was deputy of the Experiment Operations Team, and was a member of the management group that provided input to budget and management decisions for the entire project.

Major accomplishments include working to keep all science instruments on the payload through development and launch with greater capabilities than when selected under severe budget constraints; representing the scientific objectives of the mission to the project, science community and NASA Headquarters; selecting and validating a landing site for Mars Pathfinder, including convening two open landing site workshops; overseeing integration of Participating Scientists and Atmospheric structure instrument/Meteorology Package Facility Instrument Science Team Members into the project; providing environmental and scientific information about Mars for designing the spacecraft and rover; and integrating and organizing the science team into effective operations groups for rapid planning for and analysis of science and rover data. After landing, the Project Scientist oversaw the presentation of the science results of the mission to the press, public and science community. This included extensive interactions with the media, planning and convening a number of special sessions of Pathfinder results at science meetings, and organizing and arranging for the publication of Pathfinder scientific results in journals.

As a research scientist at JPL, Golombek has worked in Earth and planetary structural geology and tectonics, with recent emphasis on Mars geology in general. This work has been funded via peer review from a wide variety of NASA programs, including the planetary Geology and Geophysics and the Solid Earth Science Programs, as well as advanced mission studies and the operation phases of other Mars missions. The techniques used in this research include field and structural mapping, brittle fracture analysis, paleomagnetic analysis, space-based geodesy, planetary mapping and analysis, and modeling of planetary structures and lithospheres. Golombek has also served as editor or associate editor of professional journals, as convener of scientific workshops and special sessions at national and international meetings, as a member of many NASA science advisory groups, and has been invited nationally and internationally to speak as a contributing member of the science community.

DR. JOSEPH P. ALLEN (Spacewalking Consultant) is the chairman of the board of Veridian Corporation, an advanced information technology company specializing in decision support and knowledge management, information systems and communications, modeling and simulation, systems integration, and engineering and analysis. He previously served as a consultant on the blockbuster "Armageddon."

Prior to his responsibilities with Veridian, Allen served as a guest research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory, then as a member of the physics faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1967, NASA selected him as a member of its class of Scientist-Astronauts, a position he held until 1985. While at NASA, Allen served as a mission controller for Apollo 15, Apollo 17 and Space Shuttle flight STS-1. He later flew as an astronaut aboard STS-5, the first mission space shuttle to carry cargo into orbit, and then aboard STS-14, the only mission to date to salvage cargo from orbit.

During his NASA career, he also served as assistant administrator of the agency from 1975 to 1978, and as director of astronaut training and operations in the early 1980s.

Allen holds a Masters of Science and a Ph.D in physics from Yale University, and an undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics from DePauw University. He is the author of Entering Space: An Astronaut's Odyssey, a personal account of the space flight experience, and he has published widely in the fields of physics and space research. In addition to his responsibilities with Veridian Corporation, Dr. Allen serves as director of Arvin Industries in Columbus, Indiana; as Chairman of the Challenger Center, a charitable organization sponsoring Space Science Education projects in North America and England; and as a member of the board of trustees of Memorial-Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.

A Fulbright scholar, Allen's awards include the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Lloyd's of London Silver Medal for Meritorious Services. He is a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

# # #

 

 

 

(2/11/00)