Ridley Scott’s The Martian features one of the most realistic space exploration missions ever presented on the big screen. To highlight the film’s commitment to authenticity, we partnered with pop culture’s favorite scientist—Neil deGrasse Tyson—to create a stunning CG mini-episode of his show StarTalk set in the year 2035.

Neil—aged to look 20 years older—broke down the real-life science of the mission and provided key details about the film’s fictional space program. The short was written and developed to authentically capture Neil’s passion and optimism about space exploration. We even gave him greyer hair and had him play the role with a bit more gravitas, in order to bring forth a few extra years of wisdom and experience.

In August 2015, we launched the short film across social media with the help of NASA, 20th Century Fox, StarTalk, National Geographic, and Neil himself. It was also used to promote the new season of StarTalk, and ran as a serialized short film on NatGeo during commercial breaks in the weeks leading up to the film’s release.

The short itself was developed over the course of 7 weeks - from script to finish. Our production team created a beautiful mixed-reality space setting and a range of visuals featuring Mars, the Hermes spaceship, et al. that were designed to match the quality and aesthetic of the feature film.

“Ares: Our Greatest Adventure” generated over 5 million multiplatform views.

Audiences and press devoured the campaign, praising the collaboration with Neil deGrasse Tyson as “a pretty ingenious bit of publicity” (Slate) and “one of the cooler cross-promotional moves in recent history” (AV Club). The effort was collectively heralded for its realistic nature, authenticity and innovative marketing. The Nerdist even called it “one of the best, most creative, and frankly most awesome promos for a movie ever.”

Best of all, The Martian went on to become one of the biggest pop culture events of 2015, opening at #1, becoming the second-highest Fall opening of all-time and Ridley Scott’s most successful movie ever.