Skip to footer

'The Martian' marks Matt Damon's third sci-fi film in as many years

Matt Damon is already well known for his dramas and action films. Is the Hollywood star also making a name for himself as a sci-fi star?

|
"Elysium": Columbia TriStar; "Interstellar": Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers; "The Martian": ™ and © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Matt Damon appeared in (L to R): "Elysium," "Interstellar" and "The Martian."

Matt Damon has become a Hollywood A-lister by taking on roles in big-budget action films and dramas, but could he become known for his science fiction work instead? This Friday is opening night of "The Martian," which is the third major science fiction movie starring Damon in the last two years.

In 2014, Damon played a supporting role in Christopher Nolan's space epic "Interstellar." In 2013, he starred in "Elysium," a story in which extreme class divides have sent wealthy people to live on a Shangri-La-esque space station orbiting Earth.

It's awesome to see a major celebrity participate in epic works of science fiction, especially since the genre tends to wax and wane in popularity with the general public. But "The Martian" director Ridley Scott said Damon was concerned about the similarities between his roles in "The Martian" and "Interstellar." [Video: Making "The Martian" Was Amazing, Matt Damon Says]

In "The Martian," Damon plays astronaut Mark Watney, who is mistaken for dead and left behind on Mars by his crewmates. He must find a way to survive on the inhospitable planet before a rescue mission can reach him. In "Interstellar," Damon plays an astronaut who has willingly traveled to an unexplored planet to find out if it could host a colony of humans. 

Scott mentioned Damon's concerns about the similarity between the two roles during a panel discussion following an early screening of "The Martian" on Sunday, Sept. 27, in New York City.

"I think he was concerned that he'd done ["Interstellar"] and that he had been isolated on a planet [in that too]. And he said, 'You think that matters?' and I said, 'I don't know. I need to see the film ['Interstellar,']'" Scott said. "I saw it and thought, 'Nah, the film's great, but I don't think it connects in that way.'"

Oddly enough, Damon's co-star in "The Martian," Jessica Chastain, was also in "Interstellar," although the two never shared a scene in the latter movie. In "The Martian," Chastain plays the captain of the Mars crew that accidentally leaves Watney behind. In "Interstellar," she plays a brilliant physicist working on a problem that may save the human race.

Damon was attached to "The Martian" from early on, even before Scott was chosen as the film's director. In an exclusive interview with Space.com, we asked Damon if he was worried that the amount of science in the movie might make it a little too geeky.

"I think the book does a very good job of, you know, [Weir] doesn't go too deep into the weeds. At least, he doesn't lose someone like me, and I'm really a layman," he said. "So that's what we really wanted to retain with the movie. We wanted it to feel like the science wasn't beyond any of our capacity to understand. And hopefully the movie audience will get a kick out of it — you know they're going to understand the problems that [Watney] has to overcome, and watch him overcome them."

Will Damon go for a fourth and fifth science fiction film in the near future? We've got our fingers crossed.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'The Martian' marks Matt Damon's third sci-fi film in as many years
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0930/The-Martian-marks-Matt-Damon-s-third-sci-fi-film-in-as-many-years
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe