their journey through space, and the amazing discovery they make when they finally reach Mars.

Touchstone Pictures presents a Jacobson Company production of a Brian De Palma film, Mission to Mars Directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Tom Jacobson, the screenplay is by Jim Thomas & John Thomas and Graham Yost. The story is by Lowell Cannon and Jim Thomas & John Thomas. Sam Mercer is executive producer. Buena Vista Pictures distributes.

"I had always wanted to do a space adventure movie; something dramatic, realistic and contemporary about human space exploration," says producer Tom Jacobson, who co-conceived the idea of Mission to Mars

"It's a great story and a great adventure," says director Brian De Palma. "I'd never directed science fiction before, so the problem of shooting outer space and shooting a planet nobody's ever seen before gave me a whole new canvas with which to work. I tried to avoid all the clichés of science fiction movies and to give a whole new look and approach to this fantastic story."

Unlike a lot of other science fiction films, the director acknowledges, the most exciting aspect of making the movie was to create realism. He recalls the 1950 classic "Destination Moon," which he saw as a young boy, and was one of the first science fiction films to attempt a high level of technical accuracy. "I was struck by how authentic that film looked. What we've tried to do is to make 'Mission to Mars' as authentic as possible, and it's what we've realized. The film is all the more exciting because you feel like it's extremely real. The various things that happen to the Mars One and Two crews in this film all come out of the physics of what could happen in the situations presented in the story. So, it is realistic and extremely authentic."