Wyatt Rockefeller: Last News

As our society has watched the likes of billionaire Richard Branson and Amazon mastermind Jeff Bezos proclaim themselves interstellar pioneers with their recent self-funded forays to the edge of space, it’s serendipitous to see a newly released movie about people inhabiting Mars following an ecological disaster on Earth and a story that unfolds where things predictably go awry. Though said effort, entitled “Settlers” and helmed by Wyatt Rockefeller, foregoes the sleek spacecraft Branson & Bezos have both commandeered in favor of a stark, eroded landscape appropriate for the red planet.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIf there’s life on Mars, there must also be death on Mars: That’s the plainest takeaway from “Settlers,” a stark, scorched, occasionally jolting sci-fi slow burn in which relocating to the red planet can’t save humanity from its basest instincts. Tracing the tumultuous household dynamics of four ex-earthlings over the course of a decade, as they attempt to forge a new life on a hostile surface, Wyatt Rockefeller’s polished, confident debut feature succeeds most vividly as a feat of minimalist world-building — constructing an overwhelmingly desolate Martian farmstead in South Africa’s Namaqualand desert, in which avenues of exploration feel infinite, and escape impossible.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIFC Midnight has acquired North American rights to Wyatt Rockefeller’s “Settlers.” The film, which marks Rockefeller’s feature narrative debut, stars Sofia Boutella or “Kingsman: The Secret Service” fame, and Brooklynn Prince, who first captured audiences’ hearts in “The Florida Project.” Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nell Tiger Free, and Jonny Lee Miller round out the cast. IFC Midnight will release the film in summer 2021.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLondon-based production, finance and sales outfit “Film Constellation” has boarded international sales on dystopian sci-fi thriller “Settlers,” directed by Wyatt Rockefeller, and starring Sofia Boutella, whose credits include “Atomic Blonde,” “The Mummy,” the “Kingsman” franchise and “Star Trek: Beyond.”Boutella plays Ilsa, a refugee from Earth, who has settled with her husband and daughter on the harsh and arid terrain of a Martian outpost. With nothing but a few crops and a domesticated robot, the family clings to hope for a better life, but everything is turned upside down when a group of armed assailants appear on the surrounding hills.