Andrea Iervolino Hires NASA Vet Bert Ulrich With Aim to Make Movies in Space

Prolific Italian producer Andrea Iervolino has hired former NASA film liaison Bert Ulrich to turbocharge his race to space via his Space 11 Corp. banner.

Ulrich as executive vp of production development and communications will oversee efforts to produce and film movie, TV and web content, including live concerts and sports, in outer space.

“Bert is a visionary in space storytelling. His experience is invaluable in taking Space 11 to the next level and inspiring audiences around the world,” Iervolino, a veteran film producer with credits like Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice, said in a statement on Thursday.

Space 11 is a subsidiary of Iervolino’s film and TV company Iervolino Entertainment. Ulrich brings two decades of work at NASA as the agency’s liaison for films and documentaries that required support like The Martian, First Man, Hidden Figures, Ad Astra, Fly Me to the Moon and the upcoming Project Hail Mary project.

Ulrich also collaborated with global talent like Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, U2 and Coldplay. “I’m thrilled to join Space 11 and help shape a new era of entertainment on Earth and in space. With Andrea and the team, we’re ready to explore storytelling in a way the world has never seen,” Ulrich said in a statement.

Projects earlier brainstormed by Space 11 include Galactic Combat, a reality competition series where 40 mixed martial arts fighters train and learn to fight beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. (To note: The series was announced in 2021 but doesn’t appear to have filmed.)

Space 11 is following in the steps of film producers like Imax, which has developed proprietary cameras to shoot its own big screen documentaries in outer space over the decades.