Montreal – Galafilm heads into post-production this month on one of Discovery Channel Canada’s largest original productions to date, Mars Rising. The $5-million-plus 6 x 60 doc series is being completely financed by Discovery and explores ongoing plans to put a human on the red planet.

Supervising producer Michael Jorgensen (Battle of the X-Planes) traveled to Russia, China, Holland, the U.S., the Arctic and the barren Atacama Desert in Chile to research and shoot the project last year.

‘One of the things people are going to walk away with from this series is how many people are trying to get us [to Mars],’ he says. ‘I think it is going to be the biggest human adventure story of this century, if not of all time. The journey to the moon was a walk in the park.’

The project is executive produced by Phyllis Platt and Arnie Gelbart. Francine Pelletier, Jon Kalina, Brian Murphy, Laura Turek and Denis Blaquière wrote and helmed one episode each and collaborated on the last ep, which asks the question, once we’re there, how do we get home?

The CGI will be handled by Montreal post house Damn Effects. Mars Rising is expected to premier on Discovery early next year.