It is due to shoot in the UK later this year.
Author: Mona Tabbara
Published: 12 May 2026
UK writer-director-actor Mackenzie Crook will make his feature directorial debut, Mars Express (working title), with his Detectorists co-star Toby Jones attached to lead.
Altitude is handling international sales.
The project tells the true story of Colin and Judith Pillinger, and their mission to find life on Mars back in the late 1990s. With no prior experience of building a spacecraft, the English farmers pulled together a team of misfits who took on NASA and almost won.
Producers are Big Talk Studios and Altitude, developed in association with BBC Film. It is due to shoot in the UK later this year, against a soundtrack of Britpop classics.
Altitude will also release the film theatrically in UK-Ireland.
Joe Bone has written the script, based on Colin Pillinger’s book My Life On Mars: The Beagle 2 Diaries.
Crook’s credits also include as writer, director and star of BBC series Small Prophets. His acting credits include The Office and the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. Jones has starred in Mr Burton and Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.
Crook won a Bafta for writing Detectorists.
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