Focus launches 'Mars' at AFM

LONDON -- Irish helmer Ruairi Robinson is set to direct his first feature film "The Last Days on Mars," based on a script by Clive Dawson, which Focus Features Intl. will be pre-selling to buyers at the American Film Market this week. The thriller, which is in pre-production, will be produced by Qwerty Films' Michael Kuhn ("The Duchess," "Being John Malkovich") and Andrea Cornwall ("The Scouting Book for Boys"). Pic, which was previously titled "The Animators," follows the story of an astronaut crew on Mars on the verge of a major breakthrough having collected rock specimens that reveal microscopic evidence of life. In their last hours on the planet, two astronauts go back to a cavernous valley on the surface of Mars to collect further evidence for their discovery, but a routine excavation turns deadly when one of them falls to his death and his body is taken as a host and re-animated by the very life form they sought to discover. Pic is skedded to lense in early 2012 on location in Jordan and Shepperton Studios in the U.K. Robinson is also skedded to direct another high-concept sci-fi pic, "The Fallen," which he is developing with Lionsgate U.K. and producer Kris Thykier. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com