The 44-year-old actor and 38-year-old actress portray Mark Watney and Melissa Lewis in the sci-fi drama, respectively.
Advertisement
Of course, this being Graham Norton’s show, he’ll be more interested in sci-fun rather than sci-fi, and as Damon proved to be great value for money while plugging The Monuments Men a while ago, you can bet he didn’t have to think twice before being asked to make an appearance here.
In response NASA has tried to explain certain facts and fiction of the Martian atmosphere in a recent blog post.
“Don’t get hung up on what the filmmakers got wrong”, Barratt said. There are ideas that echo, but the book by Andy Weir was a page-turner and the movie’s a puzzle palace full of trap doors. At the heart of the story is a tale of human will and ingenuity.
Chiwetel, 38, was among the actors who met with real astronauts at the European Space Agency, while Matt and Jessica spent time with NASA. “I’m in way better shape than I was for any of the other movies, but it’s been 10 times harder”.
Meanwhile, out there in space, the crew of that original mission – among them Michael Peña, Kate Mara, and the captain, a boringly dutiful Jessica Chastain – are hunkered down in their ship and headed back to Earth, after leaving poor Matt Damon, seemingly skewered to death by a communications antenna (oh, the irony) on the Red Planet.
“It’s something I thought was going to be a challenge and a little bit risky, as well”. Goddard was originally slated to write and direct the flick, but “Alien” director Ridley Scott took over the reins of the movie, with Goddard still providing the script. It’s somewhat unusual for a director to bow out of a movie but stay associated with it, so what happened?
I mentioned that this will need to make money, and by that I mean that often Oscar will have a financial hit or two in its Best Picture lineup.
“It won’t be in the next one”, Scott told German website FilmFutter.
“There aren’t a lot of movies being made like this these days, so hopefully it will attract an audience”, he said. “People think of him as an action-movie star”. But it’s the four cameras that’s really… And I’m like, ‘Ah, see a lightning strike, that could have been pretty cool.’ Because then it would be nature initiating the problem. “He’s got so much experience and he shoots so fast because he’s cutting the film in the camera, essentially”. His interior monologues have a “Hey, I might end up dead!” esprit.
While Scott is considered a master of visual effects and editor of the highest order, Damon said he’s equally meticulous about performance. The USA space agency has begun testing the Orion deep space capsule, but its first manned flight test may not be until 2023. Along with the superb compositional eye Scott has demonstrated over decades, they enable him to always seem to know when he has what he needs and briskly move on.
Weir prides himself on the science of The Martian – orbital mechanics, extraterrestrial gardening, physics, chemistry.
Advertisement
With all of that research, do you now feel you could survive being stranded on Mars? Here again he’s in an adventure that essentially amounts to one long crisis scene, playing a self-effacing character who connects with the ordinary man on the street. Every film, I have no control over the finished product, but I do have control over the day to day of working on a film; so when I leave the filming process, am I leaving having gained something?
