World Premiere of Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission Planned for SXSW

[Tami]

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--An historic 12-day journey to space by legendary game developer and space explorer Richard Garriott will have its world premiere at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin. Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission is set to blast off with two screenings at the 2010 conference. The first will be 1:30 pm on Sunday, March 14 at Austin’s Paramount Theater and the second will be Thursday, March 18, at 2:30, also at the Paramount.

The feature length documentary will debut as a Spotlight Premiere on the SXSW lineup. The film is directed by Mike Woolf of Beef and Pie Productions and produced by Brady Dial.

Garriott’s trip to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in October of 2008 was the first trip to space for a second generation astronaut. His father, Owen, flew on Skylab in the 1970s and the space shuttle in 1983. But for Richard’s dream to come true he had to pioneer private space travel. He has funded companies like the Google X PRIZE and Space Adventures, the company that now makes it possible for private citizens to purchase a seat to space.

In addition to being the first son of an astronaut to go to space, there are other firsts in this film: never-before-seen training footage in Star City, Russia’s secretive cosmonaut training facility, Garriott’s launch from Kazakhstan and his personal movies shot onboard the ISS.

More than two years in the making, the film is a behind-the-scenes look at this captivating journey which includes groundbreaking experiments that are now pioneering a wave of more affordable private space travel and other fascinating segments that give an insider’s glimpse of what life is really like onboard the ISS.

This unique moment in human space history is what attracted the filmmakers to the story. “There can only be one first son of an astronaut to go to space,” says director Mike Woolf. “People will look back at this film and realize that this is when space travel was opened up to everyone and Richard Garriott led the way.”

“This is like having an HD camera follow Christopher Columbus as he struggled to put together his voyage to the New World,” said Brady Dial, the film’s producer.

Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission is open to SXSW film and interactive badge holders and individual tickets will be available to the public. More information can be found at [url=\"http://www.manonamissionmovie.com\"]http://www.manonamissionmovie.com[/url]. The movie trailer is available for viewing at [url=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRvqt3NKFs\"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPRvqt3NKFs[/url].