Stars Go to Mars in Upcoming Red Planet

That didn't stop the makers of Red Planet, Warner Bros.' new movie about a team of space travelers who visit Mars, from trying to mirror the look and feel of the fourth rock from the sun by staking out the most rugged and remote locations they could find: the far desert corners of Jordan and Australia.

"It's rough on Mars. That's why we went to the middle of Jordan [and] the middle of Australia," said Red Planet star Val Kilmer. "We suffered making it, but it was really satisfying."

To make the movie astronauts' journey through space seem as realistic as possible, the producers used the most recent NASA data available. But with the film set 50 years in the future, some creative liberties had to be taken.

"There's such integrity in the design, it feels like: That's what a shuttle will look like in 50 years," Kilmer said. "I see why the boots look like that."

In the film, the Earth is dying and Kilmer and the rest of the all-star cast — including Carrie-Ann Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Terence Stamp and Simon Baker — portray a team of scientists desperate to build a colony on the surface of Mars.

Their journey takes a turn for the worse when they crash-land into the Red Planet and are left without equipment, and without a way home, only to discover they are not alone.

Though the film is a sci-fi fantasy, Moss — who plays the pilot and crew leader in the film — said the movie raises many provocative, real-life issues.

"The thing I think is so important to look at is what is happening to Earth, that we may one day need to find a new place to live," Moss said.

"I think that the movie really does pose a lot of questions that people are really asking themselves now, like, 'Are we alone and, if not, where should we go?'" said Mark Canton, the film's producer.

Red Planet, the first feature film from award-winning commercial director Antony Hoffman, premiered Monday night in Los Angeles.

— Fox News' Juliet Huddy and Robin Wallace contributed to this report