Focus Films attached to Last Days on Mars with director Ruairi Robinson

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Ruairi Robinson, who created last year’s much buzzed-about short film BLINKY, is ready to move forward with his first feature film in the form of THE LAST DAYS ON MARS, which was known as THE ANIMATORS when it was first announced last year. Focus Films International has just boarded the project and will handle international sales and distribution; they’re currently shopping the movie at AFM. Peter Jackson’s WETA will create the visual effects; always good news.

The plot crunch: As their last day on Mars draws to a close, the astronaut crew is on the verge of a major breakthrough – collected rock specimens reveal microscopic evidence of life. Meanwhile, communication is underway with AURORA, the approaching spacecraft that will relieve the crew of their operations. In their last hours on the planet, two astronauts go back to SITE 9, a cavernous valley on the surface of Mars, to collect further evidence of their discovery. But a routine excavation turns deadly when one of them falls to his death and his body taken host and re-animated by the very life form they sought to discover.

THE LAST DAYS ON MARS is currently in pre-production and is expected to start shooting early 2012 on location in Jordan and at Shepperton Studios in the UK.

Robinson, who received an Oscar nomination for his short film “Fifty Percent Grey”, also has the sci-fi thriller THE FALLEN set up at Lionsgate.