HOLLYWOOD legend Ron Howard is many things — famed actor, busy producer, acclaimed director, doting father, and more recently a passionate advocate for the colonisation of Mars.

Make no mistake — man will set foot on the red planet within two decades, and it’ll be more than a passing visit, he says.

We will resettle a chunk of our population there in a bid to save our species, Howard says.

“I always thought of Mars like how I’d thought of the moon — a place to go to better humanity’s understanding, a terrific and romantic idea,” the acclaimed director and producer explains.

That was until he started work on the bold new television series Mars and concluded that settling there is our only hope of survival.

“As I began to read more and talk to experts I saw it very differently. I saw immediate colonisation of Mars as a very wise idea, a worthy ambition and a way of perpetuating our species and restoring this planet before it’s too late.”

The show is part current day documentary featuring an array of experts, and part high-spec drama telling the fictional tale of a manned mission to our planetary neighbour in the year 2033.

This isn’t pie-in-the-sky thinking, Howard insists, but a magnificent glimpse at our very real future.

“It’s just around the corner. Momentum is building and a lot of people, like the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, are working on this right now.”

WATCH THE TRAILER FOR MARS:

Howard has long been fascinated with space. In the 1990s, he directed that passion into his work and directed the blockbuster film Apollo 13, as well as producing the TV miniseries From The Earth To The Moon.

“I have a very poetic relationship with the night sky,” he says.

“I appreciate the beauty of it, its incomprehensibility. It doesn’t make me want to go, but the deeper mystery of it astounds me.”

SENSE OF ADVENTURE

Exploring new frontiers is a theme that’s been constant through Howard’s remarkable life.

At four, his family drove from New York to Los Angeles so his parents could pursue their Hollywood ambitions.

It was the same humble age Howard began working, with an acting role in the film The Journey.

“I remember the magic of making that story come to life. I was caught up in the idea of reaching people through the lens of a camera. That gave me a sense of adventure.”

When he made the leap from TV actor — on the back of his starring role as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days — to film director in his mid-20s, it was in search of that familiar boyhood feeling.

“I’ve always used this job to fuel that original sense of adventure I felt. Otherwise I’m a pretty cautious person in life. The shows and movies are what opens me up to the world in ways I’d be too timid to embrace.”