The team behind Apple TV+‘s big-budget European drama Constellation took to the stage in Cologne this week to talk developing the psychological sci-fi drama, technical challenges of shooting zero gravity, almost casting Jeff Bridges and why they spent nearly $550,000 on space suits. You can watch a video of the session at the bottom.
During a production masterclass session at Seriencamp, series producer Daniel Hetzer and line producer Jakob Neuhausser from Constellation co-producer Turbine Studios revealed the budget for the series sat around €100M ($110M), with Apple providing around 70% and a €10M grant coming from the state-run German Motion Picture Fund.
Turbine, which has bases in the UK and Germany, had initially joined forces with France’s Haut et Court TV to create the project. Together they attached writer and show creator Peter Harness and then sold a global license to the project to Apple, before attracting around €30M in soft money from Germany, the UK, France, Finland and Morocco. “That reserved us a seat at the table as a financing partner,” said Hetzer.
The series, which stars Noomi Rapace, Jonathan Banks and James D’Arcy, follows an astronaut (Rapace) who is forced to remain behind on and repair the International Space Station after an unidentified object crashes into station. When she returns to Earth with the body of one of her colleagues, she finds pieces of her life are missing or changed.
Hetzer and Neuhausser revealed the producers and Apple had initially cast Jeff Bridges as NASA experiment leader Henry Caldera. The Big Lebowski actor dropped out after his cancer diagnosis in 2020, but director and executive producer Michelle MacLaren recommended Banks and he was soon cast in the role.
‘Real space suits weighed 300kg’
Huge set builds and technical undertaking made up part of the production at significant cost. Hetzer drew gasps in the room he revealed producers were forced to spend €500,000 ($540,000) on two bespoke space suits, with the existing ones astronauts use too heavy to be used in zero gravity filming, which involves wires and suspension harnesses. “The real space suits weighed 300kg, so you cannot use them. We’ve had to build them,” he added.
Supervising art director Cornelia Ott described the process of building massive space stations at studios in Germany, and working with Andy Nicholson, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Sandra Bullock feature Gravity.
“Creating the ISS, shooting zero gravity was a very complex task, and an incredible collaboration between all the departments,” she said. “The amazing construction team of Studio Babelsburg built the full size ISS modules on wheels to create maximum flexibility Martin Goeres, the stunt coordinator, built a unique motorized 3D track system, which covered over 1,000 square meters, so the performer or the camera could float into all directions.
Neuhausser added that the system eschewed the usual system of shooting zero gravity, which involves two stages, huge crews, rigging scaffold towers and significant chunks of time. “That would have cost us millions more,” he said. “We took the risk to let Martin Goeres build that prototype system and end up with saving millions, enabling us to have what is now on the screen… I would say [it] is a rare moment in film and history TV.”
Produced by Turbine and Haut et Court and shot in Germany, Constellation was executive produced by David Tanner, Tracey Scoffield, Caroline Benjo, Simon Arnal, Carole Scotta and Justin Thomson. MacLaren executive produced with Rebecca Hobbs and co-executive producer Jahan Lopes for MacLaren Entertainment. Writer Harness executive produced through his Haunted Barn label. Oliver Hirschbiegel, who also appeared on the panel, directed alongside MacLaren and Joseph Cedar.
As Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva first reported last month, Apple decided not to renew the show for a second season. The modules and major set pieces created for the show are now in storage, meaning the producers could have another tilt at a space series in the future.
