After heading up their own sci-fi flicks, ENDER’S GAME and TOMORROWLAND, respectively, Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson are going to co-star in an interplanetary love story for director Peter Chelsom (TOWN & COUNTRY, HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE).
Butterfield will play Gardner, the first boy born on Mars, who starts corresponding online with Robertson’s earthbound character. The two set out to learn about Gardner’s mother, who died in childbirth, and the mysteries regarding the billionaire-funded colonization of the Red Planet. The ticking clock: Earth’s gravity is somehow threatening Mars’ existence.
Gary Oldman and Carla Gugino, both experts at making genre material sing, will co-star in this as-yet-untitled film for STX Entertainment.
While Chelsom’s credits (which also include SHALL WE DANCE, SERENDIPITY, and THE MIGHTY) don’t exactly inspire confidence in his handling of sci-fi or romance, this premise has some potential, and some formidable acting talent to boot. I haven’t found a sliver worth writing home about in Robertson’s UNDER THE DOME or TOMORROWLAND performances, but Butterfield, Oldman, and Gugino are all immensely talented actors who fit right at home in lofty premises and genre trappings. Hopefully, they will add enough verve to the proceedings to get us invested and make us want Butterfield and Robertson’s characters fall in love and save the planet.
