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‘The Martian’: Three Reasons To Get Excited About Ridley Scott’s 2015 Film

By Alanna Vopni
Published on: 18:10 PST, Sep 21, 2015

The Martian is the highly anticipated space drama starring Matt Damon as one of the six astronauts who make the first manned journey to Mars but who, due to an unforeseen accident, gets left behind on the red planet, alone.

The story of The Martian, based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, follows how Damon’s character, Mark Watney, survives while he waits for his rescue and how the ground and flight crews go about deciding what they’re going to do, if anything, to save one man while jeopardizing five more.

The Cast Of The Martian Is Spectacular

The clip below sets the stage for the astronauts when each of them is interviewed by a psychiatrist after they’ve undergone 10 days of isolation training to prepare them for the upcoming mission to Mars.

Matt Damon has possibly got the funniest bit in the above sequence. Damon previously wowed audiences with his turn as an undiscovered genius from the wrong side of the tracks in Good Will Hunting, which not only earned him an Oscar for his writing, but also got him a nomination for his acting.

Jessica Chastain has been nominated by the Academy twice for her performances in The Help and Zero Dark Thirty.

For her work on Saturday Night Live And Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig has been nominated for many awards, including Emmys, Golden Globes, and an Oscar.

His stirring portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years A Slave earned Chiwetel Ejiofor a nomination for many awards and won him the Best Actor honor from the British Academy in 2013.

Just this year, Jeff Daniels was nominated for an Emmy for his role on The Newsroom.

And multi-talented Donald Glover has received nominations on the musical front as well as for his hilarious performance of a popular football quarterback trying to embrace his inner geek by going to community college in the comedy series, Community.

The Source Material For The Martian Has A Large Audience

In 2011, Andy weir self-published The Martian, and it piqued the interest of enough of an audience to draw the attention of Crown Publishing, which then bought the rights and reprinted the book in 2014.

But even before that happened, 20th Century Fox felt The Martian had enough popularity to option the movie rights in 2013.

The reviews for the book were stellar, especially considering The Martian was Weir’s first published novel.

Kirkus Reviews gave a keen review.

“[The Martian is] sharp, funny and thrilling, with just the right amount of geekery.”

USA Today held back a little, giving the book three out of four stars but gave some constructive criticism as to why one of the stars is conspicuously absent.

“[The Martian] is, on the whole, terrific stuff, a crackling good read that devotees of space travel will devour like candy. But Mark [Watney’s] unflappability, perhaps the book’s biggest asset, is also its greatest weakness. He’s a wiseacre with a tendency to steer well clear of existential matters.”

The Astronauts On The International Space Station Had A Preview Of The Martian And Loved It

The Martian has been screened twice, well in advance of its October 2 wide opening — first at the Toronto International Film Festival and then, fittingly enough, in space.

Before Andy Weir wrote The Martian, he spent a lot of time doing in-depth research on orbital mechanics, astronomy and the history of manned space flight in order to make the book as technically accurate as possible. But when filming was about to start he decided to take the script to the people who would know best — NASA.

NASA, which sees The Martian as the perfect way to kick off a national conversation about a real-life journey to Mars, didn’t take much convincing to hop on board. The Director of the Planetary Science Division, James L. Green, himself reworked some of the tech that originally appeared in the novel to modern day standards, which will give audiences a glimpse into how an actual trip to the Red Planet might go down.

Watch the trailer for The Martian below and catch the movie in your local theatre October 2.

[Image courtesy 20th Century Fox]

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matt damon ridley scott donald glover jeff daniels Kristen Wiig Jessica Chastain
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