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Sebastián Lelio, the Oscar-winning author of A Fantastic Woman, will direct Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Voyagers, the story of the romantic relationship between astronomer and Contact writer Carl Sagan and documentary producer-director Ann Dryan.
The feature film was produced by Ben Browning for FilmNation Entertainment, Lynda Obst, who brought Contact to the big screen, and Druyan herself. FilmNation Entertainment kicks off worldwide sales at the forthcoming Cannes market
“Voyagers” unfolded in 1977 as NASA prepared to launch mankind’s first interstellar probes. A team led by Sagan sets out to create a message to accompany them, known as the Gold Disc, which will contain music and imagery for possible extraterrestrial civilizations. But what begins as a race against the clock develops into a love story between Sagan and Druyan. FilmNation Entertainment brought together Druyan, who married Sagan in 1981, with screenwriters Lelio and Jessica Goldberg. They then wrote the original screenplay based on interviews with Druyan and many others who worked on the Golden Record project.
Druyan and Sagan later wrote “Cosmos,” an influential PBS series that covers a wide range of scientific topics. Sagan died in 1996.
“As a nine-year-old boy growing up during the Chilean dictatorship, the television series ‘Cosmos’ by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan had a profound impact on me and sparked my fascination with life’s biggest questions and mysteries,” said Lelio. “It’s a dream to make a film about the gold record and in it the inspiring love story between Carl and Ann. I am thrilled that Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones will be at the center of this epic romance set against the infinite backdrop of space and time.”
Most recently, Lelio co-wrote and directed The Wonder with Florence Pugh. His other work includes Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore, an English-language remake of Lelio’s Gloria.
Garfield, an Oscar nominee for Hacksaw Ridge and Tick Tick…Boom!, is currently producing John Crowley’s We Live in Time, in which he stars alongside Pugh. Most recently, he starred opposite Edgar-Jones in FX’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which earned him his first Emmy Award nomination and Edgar-Jones her second Golden Globe nomination. She is best known for her performance in the Emmy Award-nominated series Normal People, based on Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, and last summer’s hit film Where the Crawdads Sing.
“Imagine falling madly in love with one of the greatest humans who ever lived while creating a complex message about what it means to be alive, a gold disc attached to the first interstellar spacecraft launched by our species and will sail the Milky Wise Galaxy long after Earth has ceased to exist,” Druyan said. “It takes a film to bring this mythical experience, this cosmic love story to life. After years of searching, I feel like we found just the right collaborators and artists to capture the magic of it.”
Lelio is represented by LARK, Entertainment 360 and Granderson Des Rochers; Garfield is represented by CAA, Gordon & French, ID and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; Edgar-Jones is represented by UTA, Hamilton Hodell, Relevant, Public Eye Communications and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.; Goldberg is represented by United Talent Agency and attorney Jeff Franke; Obst is represented by Eric Suddleson at Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson McGinnis Ryan LLP.