Mars continues to fascinate filmmakers, and we don't just mean those speculating about whether potatoes grown in human poo would taste differently. The latest person to hop on the Red Planet bandwagon is House Of Cards creator Beau Willimon, who has sold a series to US streaming service Hulu called The First.
The show focuses on the challenges of humanity's first tentative steps towards interplanetary colonisation and the dangers the brave souls face on Mars. "It’s a story about the human spirit," says Willimon in a statement picked up by Deadline. "About our indomitable need to reach for unknown horizons. About people working toward the greatest pioneering achievement in human history. And about the cost of that vision, the danger and sacrifice – emotional, psychological, and physical – that’s required to achieve it. How ordinary, imperfect people band together and overcome a myriad of obstacles to grasp the extraordinary." It should shoot this year for a 2018 launch, and unlike some other Hulu shows, is being co-financed by Channel 4, so there's a good chance it'll arrive in the UK around the same time. It joins the recent likes of National Geographic's Mars series, which looked at a similar subject.
In related Hulu announcement news, there's word that Marvel's Runaways has also snagged a series order after hitting the pilot stage. Based on Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona's comics, it'll tell the story of six teenagers who never quite get along but are united by the fight against their supervillain parents. That one comes from Chuck/Gossip Girl duo Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, and should be on American screens next year also, though there's no word yet on a UK pickup.
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