VOYAGERS
Colin Farrell, Lily-Rose Depp in Terrifying Deep Space
Voyagers was supposed to be a multi-generational space mission movie. The crew of 30 young men and women must find a new home. The cast looks like they were plucked straight out of the Olympic village —and they have the libidos to match. But amid the pharmaceutically enhanced low gravity bacchanalia, paranoia descends. And the crew begins to question its reality.
This space station is under the direction of Neil Burger (who also wrote the screenplay). He is no stranger to dystopian science fiction films with young adults. Burger helmed the 2014 film adaptation of Divergent (starring Shailene Woodley) and was an Executive Producer of the franchise trilogy. Additionally, Burger directed 2011’s sci-fi thriller Limitless. Bradley Cooper’s character takes the imaginary nootropic drug NZT-48 to unlock his intelligence potential (not to be confused with 2014’s Lucy). Scarlett Johansson’s character takes the fictional nootropic drug CPH4 to unlock her intelligence potential).
In Voyagers, Colin Farrell supervises the space field trip. Tye Sheridan leads the young crewmembers as Christopher Rebbs. Sheridan is best known as the lead in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One film adaptation and as the young Scott Summers/Cyclops in recent X-Men franchise entries. In the fall, he’ll star opposite Ben Affleck in George Clooney’s coming-of-age Amazon movie The Tender Bar.
Also on deck is Fionn Whitehead as Zac. Whitehead was the lead in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (his first film role). He also appeared as “Him” on the British miniseries of the same name and the interactive Netflix film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.
Rounding out the ensemble is Lily-Rose Depp ( the daughter of actor Johnny Depp and ex-wife, actor/singer/model Vanessa Paradis) of A Faithful Man, and Netflix’s The King (with Timothée Chalamet). Later this year, she will join Gary Oldman in Crisis about the opioid epidemic.
Since the first “coed” space mission in 1982, questions about sex in space are of a prurient and biological interest. Officially, NASA said that no humans have ever joined the “mile-high” club. Their Russian counterparts also deny that missions ever included intimacy. And astronauts are cagey about the subject in interviews. Astronauts (and cosmonauts) have only confirmed experiments on artificial insemination in frogs.
According to Deadline, the film was shot during the first half of 2019. COVID delayed its original Thanksgiving 2020 release. And currently, the film is scheduled for theatrical release on April 9, 2021.
