51 Degrees North is a new feature film project supported by the Asteroid Day Foundation and Films United. A 30-day Kickstarter campaign will launch today, Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, to support the film’s official release on June 30, 2015.
Brian May, famed lead guitarist for Queen and astrophysicist, is among the first to support the campaign. May composed the central soundtrack of
51 Degrees North. He notes that, “This is a movie to change perspectives, and now that we realize the high probability of such a strike from space, it is a timely warning indeed.”
51 Degrees North is a film focused on telling the story of a fictional asteroid hitting London and the aftermath of such an incident.
The premiere is scheduled to coincide with Asteroid Day, June 30, which will be held on the 107th anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid impact in Siberia — the largest to strike Earth in recent history.
Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign that brings people from around the world together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet from asteroid impacts.
Brian May, Lord Martin Rees, Bill Nye, and Brian Cox are among the signatories of Asteroid Day’s 100x Declaration, which calls for mapping and early detection of dangerous asteroids.
51 Degrees North film producer and director Grigorij Richters, also a signatory, believes “the film will be central to raising awareness about the risk and devastation of asteroids hitting Earth.”
Apollo 9 astronaut and Asteroid Day signatory Rusty Schweickart would seem to agree, on viewing the film he said, “… incredibly innovative and thought provoking. An eye-opener!"
To participate in the Kickstarter campaign, head to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grigorijrichters/51-north.
The target of £33,000 is set to cover post-production costs. As per the rules of Kickstarter, the campaign is based on an “all or nothing” funding model.
In a show of his personal support, the project will offer a series of one-off Brian May rewards packages exclusively of offer on Kickstarter. These will include a personalized voicemail greeting recorded by May himself.
In addition, unique to the fundraising campaign will be the designing of a one of a kind asteroid edition of Brian May’s iconic Red Special guitar. An artist will be commissioned to paint the guitar using ground asteroid, on top of this a piece of asteroid will be embedded into the head of the instrument. This exceptional piece will then be auctioned online.
Kickstarter was chosen as the most suitable crowd-funding platform for the preservation of the film’s scientific credibility and unique narrative as well as an opportunity to build a community of supporters.