Montreal: Discovery Channel and Montreal’s Galafilm Productions are confident that fascination with the planet Mars and its exploration will translate into not one, but two hit shows.

The plans – ‘highly ambitious,’ acknowledges Galafilm head Arnie Gelbart – include Race to Mars, a four-part miniseries about a speculative manned trip to Mars in 2030, and an accompanying six-hour doc mini, Mars Rising, both to premiere on Discovery in 2007.

The total budget for the all-HD project is $20 million, with the six-week Montreal shoot of Race to Mars running until June 15. The idea is to leave any crazy sci-fi ideas behind, and to root the series in carefully researched, educated speculation.

‘We have consulted over 175 scientists about what the challenges for a mission to Mars will be,’ says Gelbart. ‘What will the year 2030 look like? We are basing this on the best scientific knowledge we can. We’re doing everything we can to keep the cheese factor low.’

Gelbart says the model for the show is the BBC’s Supervolcano, another part doc, part drama. And, with its hefty budget, Gelbart says he now understands why NASA programs cost so much.

‘You can’t cheat – the spaceship we’re using has to look real. There will be a lot of CGI effects added, too. These things add up.’

Race to Mars imagines a new space race between the U.S. and China, in which the U.S. launches a manned mission to Mars, with an international crew from the States, Canada, France, Russia and Japan. The script – by the Canuck team of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Star Trek: Enterprise, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World) – has the crew grappling with the emotional weight of leaving loved ones behind for two years, as well as the physical strains involved with such a trip.

Michael Riley (This Is Wonderland), Pascale Bussières (Ma vie en cinémascope), Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe), Claudia Ferri (Mambo Italiano), Frank Schorpion (Human Trafficking) and Kevan Ohtsji (Stargate SG-1) star in Race to Mars, which is produced by Pia Marquard, executive produced by Gelbart and Phyllis Platt of Galafilm, directed by George Mihalka, and shot by Norayr Kasper (Calendar). Mars Rising will be directed by Michael Jorgensen, Jon Kalina, Francine Pelletier and Brian Murphy.

A companion piece will be Mars Interactive, a website of information about the Red Planet produced by QuickPlay Media to launch this summer.

Race to Mars will air on Discovery Channel Canada, NHK in Japan and ARTE in France. Mars Rising will air on The Science Channel in the U.S., France’s ARTE, and via Discovery Networks International. Further international sales are still being negotiated.