Ridley Scott is what studio executives prone to J.J. Abrams-levels of project secrecy would call “a leaky faucet.” Or maybe execs don’t actually use phrases like “leaky faucet” to describe people. (I don’t make movies, so I don’t know.) Either way, it is an accurate phrase for the film director, who has been spouting all kinds of information about his Prometheus sequel while doing press for his current film, The Martian. Adding to the pile is his claim about knowing of the recently announced NASA discovery of flowing water on Mars months in advance.
When Yahoo News broached the topic with Scott on Monday, the director was altogether less excited. That’s because, as he put it, “I knew that months ago.”
Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard spent a lot of time at NASA throughout The Martian‘s production, as the pair wanted to get as much of the movie’s science to be as viable as possible. This involved annoying NASA scientists and administrators with a lot of questions, including some that they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer.
Scott told Yahoo News, “When I first talked to NASA, we got into all kinds of stuff and I said, ‘So, I know you’ve got down there [these] massive glaciers.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, the massive white thing [on the surface of Mars] that gets covered with dust, we think that’s ice,'” said Scott. “And I said, ‘Wow! Does that mean there was an ocean?’ Are we right now what Mars was 750 million years ago?’ And they went, ‘Uh, good question.’ So, they want to go up there and find out.”
Wait a minute. Does this mean that the man who directed Alien helped encourage NASA, to paraphrase Total Recall and astronaut Buzz Aldrin‘s popular t-shirt design, to get their asses to Mars? Is that really such a good idea? I mean, NASA personnel have surely watched Alien all the way through, right?
The Martian hits theaters this Friday, October 2.
(Via Yahoo News)
