Michael Sheen stars in Welsh-set UFO comedy Out There

Nation.Cymru staff

Michael Sheen is to star in a UFO comedy set in Wales.

The Welsh legend who believes he saw a UFO when he was a child, will star in Out There alongside a cast of well-known actors from Wales.

Images have this week been released for the movie ahead of its festival launch at the Edinburgh International Film Festival next month.

The film follows a rebellious sixteen-year-old in a small Welsh seaside town who becomes convinced that a mysterious UFO sighting holds the key to her father’s disappearance. Enlisting the help of her sceptical best friend and a local UFO conspiracy theorist, the search for answers leads her on an extraordinary journey that helps her rediscover the family, friendship and sense of belonging she thought she’d lost forever.

The film’s leads are newcomers Nerys Amber Stocks and Tom Moya, alongside a cast of considerable Welsh talents including Sheen, with Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk, 1899), and Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones, Those About to Die) alongside Alice Lowe (Timestalker, Prevenge).

Out There is the debut feature from writer/director Simon Ryninks. The film was developed by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, Ffilm Cymru Wales and the TIFF Filmmaker Lab. Financing comes from BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales with funding from the Welsh Government via Creative Wales and the Arts Council of Wales using proceeds from the National Lottery. It was produced by Tibo Travers of Sweetdoh Films and Katie Dolan of Bad Cat.

UK-based sales outfit Film Seekers has picked up worldwide sales rights.

Ethan Cross, Sales & Acquisitions Executive at Film Seekers said: “With its nostalgic take on UFOs feeling timelier than ever and an excellent ensemble cast, this is a charming, eccentric and heartfelt story that will appeal to all the family and a title that will really resonate with buyers”.

Producer Katie Dolan added: “Film Seekers immediately understood our ambition to make a warm, accessible, audience-friendly theatrical film with genuine commercial appeal; one that captures the wonder of classic family adventures while resonating with contemporary audiences, from tweens to millennials and beyond. Their passion for the film and their vision for its international audience made them the perfect partner, and we couldn’t be more excited to begin this journey together”.

Given his own real-life UFO experiences, it is fitting that Sheen stars in the Welsh-set UFO movie.

Sheen has publicly shared that he witnessed strange, formation-style lights in the sky over his hometown of Port Talbot as a child.

He has humorously dubbed the industrial town the Welsh ‘Area 51’ due to a long-running local history of UFO sightings

While walking home from school at around age 12, Sheen saw a phalanx of lights emerge from behind a mountain and glide out over the ocean before stopping and abruptly disappearing.

He was so mesmerised that he stood transfixed watching them, choosing not to run inside to get his family in case the lights vanished while he was away.

The actor later learned that his father also believed he had spotted a UFO over Port Talbot years later.