Voyagers lose their way on a new planet – starring Colin Farrell
With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women, bred for
intelligence and obedience, embark on an expedition to colonise a distant planet.
But when they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they are consumed by fear, lust, and the insatiable
hunger for power.
Written and directed by Neil Burger, the film stars Colin Farrell, Tye Sheridan (The X-Men franchise), Lily-Rose Depp (The King), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Chanté Adams (Roxanne, Roxanne), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Game of Thrones), Viveik Kalra (Blinded by the Light), Archie Madekwe (Midsommar), Quintessa Swindell (Trinkets), Madison Hu (Bizaardvark), and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen).
What does it feel like… to feel for the first time? What happens when our innermost nature, after being long suppressed, is finally unleashed? Those are some of the provocative themes explored, within the context of a space epic, in Voyagers.
“It’s about human nature in a vacuum—who we are at our core,” says writer-director Neil Burger. “And about a group of extraordinary young people waking up to sensual desires, to freedom, to power, and the thrilling euphoria that goes with that experience.”
He handpicked the talented group of rising stars who appear in the film: “I began looking for the young actors who could embody the unusual personalities that find themselves on the ship, who reflected the essential conflict of human nature, and who would wrestle with these powerful impulses.”
Says Tye Sheridan, who stars as Christopher: “Within the context of this big space adventure, the
story is really about human nature. Neil has created a world that’s visually striking while providing an
opportunity to really dig in and put a magnifying glass to each of the characters.
The story’s multi-generational mission in search of a new home descends into madness, as the crew reverts to its most primal state, not knowing if the real threat they face is what’s outside the ship or who they are becoming inside it.
It is a bold, experiential, and genre-defining motion picture event about living beyond the edge, and the delicate balance between control and chaos, subservience and dominance, numb versus switched-on, and order versus rebellion.
Voyagers is an original story, conceived, developed and written by Burger. The journey began with two images that came to him: “The first was a group of young people sitting around inside a spaceship. They were disheveled, zoned out, and looking like predators resting after a hunt.
“I don’t know where that image came from. But the second one implied a story: That same group of people
chasing another crew member down the narrow corridor of the ship, pursuing him like an animal.”
“I wondered, what’s all that about? But I also thought there was something interesting and meaningful there, and I began to craft the story and the particular world.” Burger did extensive research on long distance space exploration and also on human behavior, studying confinement, aggression, tribalism, and violence.
As he shaped the ideas into the movie, he saw the ship as a metaphor for our world, the human race like the ship’s crew, hurtling through space, not exactly sure why we’re here or where we are going, but having to make a meaningful life regardless.
Burger had met Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Films some years ago and thought he would be the perfect producer to help him bring his vision to the screen. Burger also brought on G. Mac Brown who he had worked with before, along with executive producers Stuart Ford and Greg Shapiro of AGC Studios, who financed the film’s production budget.
They all worked together to meticulously cast a diverse and enormously talented group of rising stars, as well as leading industry craftspeople to usher Burger’s exacting vision to life. These include cinematographer Enrique Chediak, ASC (Bumblebee, Deepwater Horizon, 127 Hours), production designer Scott Chambliss (Godzilla: King of Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Star Trek: Into Darkness), Burger’s longtime editor Naomi Geraghty (The Upside, Limitless, Hotel Rwanda), and costume designer Bojana Nikitovic (Extraction, Papillon).
