Once again playing an astronaut stranded in space hoping to be rescued, at first glance it might seem like the Matt Damon-led The Martian is a prequel to another recent space adventure featuring the actor, Interstellar. While jokes have been bandied about regarding the similarities, anyone that has read Andy Weir‘s highly entertaining novel knows the vast difference past the logline, and now Damon himself is here to set things straight.
“I’d never met Ridley [Scott], not even in passing,” he tells Yahoo. “I went in to meet him, then I signed on really quickly. I went in and I said, I really love this script, but my only hesitation is I’ve just done Interstellar, in which I played a dude stranded on a planet, it might be weird if, after taking a year and a half off, I played another dude stranded on a planet.” He added, “I explained Interstellar to him, and he said ‘The movies are totally f***ing different, this is going to be f***ing fun. Let’s do this!’ He was so infectious, I couldn’t really say no to him.”
“One of the biggest differences is it’s primarily me on my own for a lot of it,” he continues. “That’s the big challenge. It has all the bells and whistles of NASA and the b-side of the story, the rest of the world trying to get this guy back. But the other half of the movie is me and Ridley on Mars, so that part’s different. You start there, there’s that mystery – what happened, how did he get left there? The mission part is the b-side, trying to figure out how to get back. So, structurally it’s different to anyone that’s ever been done.”
As for the tone and style of what to expect, Kate Mara tells Total Film, “Ridley has been saying a lot to us that it’s very similar to going to war. Astronauts are trained in a manner that’s not that dissimilar to how soldiers are trained. We are each other’s comrades. Everybody has each other’s backs at all times. It’s family.” Sebastian Stan adds, “These astronauts are trained with this idea that anything can happen at any moment, and you can die. This can go wrong, this can go wrong, this can go wrong – there are endless things that can happen.”
With a great trailer and a boost of confidence from 20th Century Fox pushing the film up to the Gravity sweet spot of October 2nd, we have high expectations for Scott’s latest feature. As we await the release, check out new images above and below, along with high-resolution versions of previously released watermarked ones.
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring “the Martian” home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney’s safe return. Based on a best-selling novel.
The Martian opens on October 2nd.