Aidan Gillen’s won countless fans for his portrayal of the cunning Lord Peter Baelish on HBO’s Game of Thrones. But the Irish actor shows there’s more to him than managing brothels and manipulating Starks in Ambition, a stunningly beautiful new short film produced by Platige Image and the European Space Agency (ESA) in support of the latter’s Rosetta project (advancing “the ambition to turn science fiction into science fact”). Gillen plays a master magician who, with his apprentice (portrayed by Aisling Franciosi), transforms a wasteland of dust and rock into planets, asteroids and other heavenly bodies, all of which they set in motion around a sun. Needless to say, the actor, who’s been championed by many as the perfect actor to take on the title role in Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange, here proves he has what it takes to be earth’s Sorcerer Supreme.

Ambition — the title of which is fitting on multiple levels — is directed by the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tomek BagiÅ„ski, who shot the film on location in Iceland. It debuted this week, on October 24th at the British Film Institute’s Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder festival in London. Author Alastair Reynolds nails it when he says, “As a science fiction writer, it’s hard to think of a more stirring theme than the origin and ultimate destiny of life in the universe.” Check the film out below.

Thanks to i09 for bringing this amazing short to our attention. Here’s a bonus video, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Ambition…

What do you think? Would you like to see more work like this from Bagiński? And should Marvel give serious consideration to Gillen as Stephen Strange? Let us know in the comments below!

Image: European Space Agency, ESA