With a Friend Like Dominik: Moll Blasts Off with “News from Planet Mars”

German born, French filmmaker Dominik Moll has blasted off onto his fifth feature film, News from Planet Mars. Starring François Damiens (Tip Top), Vincent Macaigne and Léa Drucker, Cineuropa’s Fabien Lemercier reports shooting has begun on the mostly Paris-based project and will continue filming into May. Diaphana Films’ Michel Saint-Jean is producing.

Gist: Co-written by Gilles Marchand and Moll, Philippe Mars (François Damiens) is a reasonable man in an unreasonable world. He’s trying to be a good father, a kind ex-husband, a nice colleague, an understanding sibling… But the planets have not been exactly aligned in his favor lately. With his son turning into a hardcore vegan, his daughter into a pathological overachiever and his sister selling oversized paintings of their naked parents, it seems to our ever-so prudent Philippe that everyone around him is starting to behave more and more erratically… When his colleague (who also accidentally tried to chop off his ear in a fit of misplaced anger) moves into Philippe’s apartment, things start to go from bad to insane for our hero.

Worth Noting: Not including this title, collectively, Gilles Marchand and Dominik Moll have been collaborators on four features films together – two from each camp.

Do We Care?: While With a Friend Like Harry and Lemming are considered goal standard in his select few filmography, his last feature The Monk (starring Vincent Cassel) hardly made a dent critically or domestically — it was distributed up an upstart company called ATO Pictures. A return to comedy with twist might be more suitable for the filmmaker.