After Sandra Bullock's successful space mission
Ridley Scott and Fox launch Matt Damon into space!
You're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of The Martian...
Two years ago, in 2013, Warner Bros, Alfonso Cuaron and Sandra Bullock discovered tremendous
success with Gravity, with the space flick grossing over seven hundred million worldwide
and receiving TEN Oscar nominations, winning seven of them including Best Director. The
following year, Paramount hoped to follow Gravity's same trajectory with Christopher
Nolan's Interstellar starring Matthew McConaughey. That mission had mixed results though, not
quite reaching Gravity's seven hundred million box office haul and was only nominated for
five Academy Awards, all technical, and won only for Best Visual Effects. But one of the
most memorable aspects about Interstellar was Matt Damon's secret cameo, which genuinely
surprised and delighted many moviegoers. And so of course, when the first images and trailers
hit for The Martian there were plenty of jokes about it being the Dr Mann solo movie - but
the reality is that The Martian is no joke. Opening the first weekend in October, when
Gravity debuted, The Martian already has strong awards buzz after receiving an excellent reception
at the Toronto International Film Festival, an important campaign stop for Oscar hopefuls.
And there are plenty of candidates for award nominations here, from fan-favorite screenwriter
Drew Goddard to composer Harry Gregon-Williams to director Ridley Scott to Scott's frequent
cinematographer Dariusz Wolski. And speaking of Scott and Wolski, so far, thankfully, this
space mission seems to be fairing much better than their 2012 mission Prometheus - interestingly,
the precursor to Gravity - although they are still moving forward with a sequel which Scott
says will be his next movie. And while The Martian boasts an impressive ensemble cast,
it's crown jewel is Matt Damon who - like Bullock - is at the top of his game right
now career-wise. After The Martian he'll return as Jason Bourne in Summer 2016, followed by
The Great Wall for Thanksgiving 2016, the first true co-production between Hollywood
and China. Then finally, you've probably heard that The Martian is based on a best selling
novel, and we all know how Hollywood loves book adaptations. But did you know that author
Andy Weir couldn't get anyone to publish his novel, so he had to self-publish online? Eventually,
due to demand, he made it available on the Amazon Kindle at the very lowest price possible
- ninety-nine cents - where it became the website's top selling science fiction title.
So, let's see if the movie adaptation makes as fascinating - and inspiring - a next chapter...