Anderson Entertainment has partnered with Space Age Films to develop and launch a new animated feature Merry Christmas, Earthlings! Based on an original story by legendary creator Gerry Anderson, the project will be officially introduced at the Berlin Film Festival’s Animation Days, part of the European Film Market’s spotlight on British animation.
The film marks the latest step in Anderson Entertainment’s long-term strategy to reimagine and expand the Gerry Anderson legacy for contemporary global audiences, pairing classic storytelling DNA with modern animation sensibilities.
Written by Gerry Anderson in 2006, Merry Christmas, Earthlings! presents a more intimate, character-led storytelling approach alongside Anderson’s trademark sense of scale and imagination. Although never produced during his lifetime, the story stood out within the Anderson archive with its warmth, humour, and emotional poignancy it was both classic and timely.
The film centres on an unlikely friendship between a boy and an alien, united on a shared quest to discover whether Father Christmas is real, a belief each needs for very different reasons. At its core, it is a festive buddy adventure combining humour, heart and exploring the enduring bond between a parent and child.
Jamie Anderson, Managing Director of Anderson Entertainment, says: “My father wrote this story at a moment when he was thinking a lot about family, belief, and what we pass on to the next generation. I always felt there was something special about it, but it needed the right partner and the right moment.
For Anderson Entertainment, this needed to be approached as a contemporary animated film with real emotional weight rather than as a heritage project. Space Age Films, and Robert specifically, understood both sides of that challenge. Robert’s hit children’s series, The Deep, has Andersonian qualities, plus he made the incredibly moving live-action Christmas film, A Christmas Number One. He was also the creative producer on The Amazing Maurice, one of the finest independent animated features made in the past decade. When I discovered he was also a fan of my father’s work, I knew we had found the right partner.”
Space Age Films is led by award-winning producer Robert Chandler, who says: “Gerry Anderson shaped the imagination of generations. For many of us, it began in the 1960s with Stingray and Thunderbirds, then evolved through Captain Scarlet and the live-action series UFO and Space: 1999. For a second generation, everything reignited when Thunderbirds was digitised and rebroadcast in the mid-1990s, sparking a global revival and a new wave of fans. For a third, the legacy continued with Thunderbirds Are Go!, released in the 2000s.
What unites all of these audiences over the years is the power of Gerry Anderson’s vision—his creativity and fearless storytelling in making shows that were high-stakes and exciting, carried big philosophical ideas, and were far ahead of their time. He is our Walt Disney and Irwin Allen rolled into one.”
Anderson Entertainment and Space Age Films have engaged award-winning writers Keiron Self and Giles New to adapt the original story into a feature screenplay designed to resonate with contemporary family audiences. Known for balancing high-energy adventure with character-driven humour and emotional warmth, Self and New bring a modern sensibility to the material.
Merry Christmas, Earthlings! has a target release window of Christmas 2028
