The Astronaut Farmer

The Astronaut Farmer
The movie poster for The Astronaut Farmer.
Directed by	Michael Polish
Written by	Mark Polish Michael Polish
Produced by	Len Amato Mark Polish Michael Polish Paula Weinstein
Starring	Billy Bob Thornton Virginia Madsen Bruce Dern Max Thieriot
Cinematography	M. David Mullen
Music by	Stuart Matthewman
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	February 23, 2007
Language	English
Budget	$13,000,000 (est) USD

The Astronaut Farmer is a 2007 film directed by Michael Polish and starring Billy Bob Thornton. Polish and his brother Mark also serve as writers and producers of the film. The movie took place in Texas, but it was filmed in New Mexico, USA. It was released on February 23, 2007.

Plot

Charles Farmer (Thornton) is a former astronaut in training who gave up his dream job to save his family's farm. Never having traveled into space, he decides to build his own space craft, a replica of the historic Mercury-Atlas, with his own time and materials. He encounters interference as the United States government tries to stop him.[1]

Cast

• Billy Bob Thornton as Charlie Farmer
• Virginia Madsen as Audrey "Audie" Farmer
• Max Thieriot as Shepard Farmer
• Bruce Dern as Hal
• Jon Gries as FBI Agent Killbourne
• Tim Blake Nelson as Kevin Munchak
• J. K. Simmons as Jacobson
• Kiersten Warren as Phyllis
• Mark Polish as FBI Agent Mathis
• Jasper Polish as Stanley Farmer
• Login Polish as Sunshine Farmer
• Sal Lopez as Pepe Garcia
• Bruce Willis as Colonel Masterson(Uncredited)

Trivia

• This is one of two films starring Virginia Madsen premiering on February 23, 2007, the other being The Number 23 starring Jim Carrey.
• This is the second time Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis collaborated in a space-themed movie, the first being Armageddon. It should be noted that Billy Bob Thornton's character in the Armageddon told Bruce Willis's character that he always wanted to travel to space.
• Shepard, the son in the movie, is named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
• Congress passed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act in 2004 [2].
• The Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) licenses private suborbital rocket launches following the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Chapter III.
• During the filming of the movie Billy Bob Thorton made a "One stop publicity tour" for both the movie and his album Hobo (album), at Borders Group Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• The rocket featured in the film is nearly-scale replica of the Mercury-Atlas that launched America's first astronauts into orbit.
• The film's release date, February 23rd, comes just three days after the 45th anniversary of the United States' first orbital mission, Friendship 7, piloted by John Glenn. Glenn's flight and the remaining three Mercury flights were all orbital missions using the Atlas booster.
• The space suit worn by Thornton's character is the same Mercury-era Navy Mark V pressure suit worn by all of the Mercury Seven astronauts prior to Mercury-Atlas 9. [3]
• The ring tone of one of the "villainous" FBI agents watching the farm is the Imperial March from the Star Wars Saga.

Quotations

• "If we don't have our dreams, we have nothing."
• "If I was building a weapon of mass destruction, you wouldn't be able to find it."
• "Somewhere along the line, we stopped believing that we can do anything."

See also

• SpaceShipOne
• Private spaceflight
• Brian Walker

External links

• Official Site

• The Astronaut Farmer at IMDb

• Out of the Cradle Review
• "Set For Launch: A Video Interview with the Makers of 'The Astronaut Farmer'" — eFilmCritic.com video interview with Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, and Polish Brothers

• "The Astronaut Farmer" Interviews with star Billy Bob Thornton and The Polish Brothers on Sidewalks Entertainment