The first trailer for Ridley Scott's The Martian received such a great response from audiences, 20th Century Fox has since shifted the movie's release date one month forwards to take advantage of the positive buzz. Given that it features an all-star cast (headlined by Matt Damon) and an exciting premise that sees Scott return to the sci-fi genre, fans have had plenty of reasons to get excited.
However, as part of an ongoing joke (that sadly doesn't get funnier the more you tell it), many 'eagle-eyed' viewers have continued to point out the movie's obvious similarities with Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Like Nolan's film, The Martian features Damon as a marooned astronaut, and also includes the talented Jessica Chastain in a key supporting role. Despite this, Damon was quick to assure Yahoo! Movies that the two films would be very different.
“I went in to meet [Ridley Scott], then I signed on really quickly. I went in and I said, I really love this script, but my only hesitation is I’ve just done Interstellar, in which I played a dude stranded on a planet, it might be weird if, after taking a year and a half off, I played another dude stranded on a planet. I explained Interstellar to him, and he said ‘The movies are totally f***ing different, this is going to be f***ing fun. Let’s do this!’ He was so infectious, I couldn’t really say no to him."
"One of the biggest differences is it’s primarily me on my own for a lot of it. That’s the big challenge. It has all the bells and whistles of NASA and the b-side of the story, the rest of the world trying to get this guy back. But the other half of the movie is me and Ridley on Mars, so that part’s different. You start there, there’s that mystery - what happened, how did he get left there? The mission part is the b-side, trying to figure out how to get back. So, structurally it’s different to anyone that’s ever been "
The Martian hits cinemas: October 2nd, 2015. The film also stars Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sebastian Stan, Kristen Wiig, Donald Glover, and Jeff Daniels. Are you excited about Ridley Scott's latest movie - or do you think it could be overshadowed by recent sci-fi hits such as Gravity or Interstellar? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!