Every indication tells that this year's Interstellar or Gravity could be The Martian, a sci-fi movie directed by Ridley Scott, that's coming out this fall to the theatres. After the movie's first trailer that came out today, on the second Monday of June, there's reason to be excited about The Martian, that features an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean and Chiwetel Ejiofor, to name a few.
After Interstellar, Matt Damon is once again left behind on an alien planet, this time on Mars. Although the odds are against him, he tries to make contact with NASA, and until the rescue team arrives, tries to survive his days on the red planet.
Although it was made by a different director, the main message of The Martian is quite similar to Interstellar's: humanity survives, no matter what.
The Martian is based on the 2011 science fiction novel by Andy Weir with the same title, which was praised by the critics and especially by the readers. It is that kind of novel that brought science closer to the casual readers, like Gravity or Interstellar did with their audiences. It was such a big hit, that Twentieth Century Fox soon got the rights to make the adaptation to the big screens. Drew Goddard, the screen writer and director of The Cabin in the Woods (2012), wrote the script for the movie.
This will be Ridley Scott's fourth sci-fi Film after Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982) and his return to the Alien franchise, Prometheus (2012).
The Martian's story has been described as a combination of Apollo 13 and Cast Away, with lots of science. One of the new trailer's mistake is that its length, more than 3 minutes, basically tells the whole story of the movie, so it's quite spoiler-y. But the visual part of the trailer is quite appealing, we really get the feel how it's like to survive a sandstorm on Mars.
The Martian hits theatres in November.
It's been good times for science fiction fans with the announcement of Time Salvager, the upcoming Independence Day 2 and of course Jurassic World, that comes out this week.