Tag Archives: Ridley Scott

Pandemic Picks: The Martian

Ridley Scott was shot into the mainstream with his 1979 Sci-Fi thriller Alien, he cemented his position as a visionary director of Science Fiction with 1982’s Blade Runner and then he moved onto other genres. In 2012 he returned to Sci-Fi with the mediocre Prometheus, audiences felt like he had lost his touch when it came to Sci-Fi. Thankfully he proved everyone wrong with the exceptional 2015 Sci-Fi drama The Martian.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Andy Weir, The Martian follows astronaut Mark Watney as he tries to survive alone on Mars after he is accidentally left behind when his fellow astronauts perform an emergency evacuation of the planet during a storm. The film has a lot of elements to it that make it such a wonderful film, the acting is superb and the characters themselves are deep and believable. The realism in the film is interesting because everything feels like it is something that not only could exist, but will exist in 2035. The realism is due to the fact that the filmmakers consulted NASA in the elements of space travel and Mars.

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In Space They Still Can’t Hear You Scream: The 40th Anniversary of Alien

Still seen as one of the most iconic horror films of the modern era, Alien has re-written the book on what a Sci Fi Horror film could be, and in doing so, has launched the careers of several influential people in modern cinema. From its humble beginnings to its worldwide phenomenon- even 40 years after its release, Alien still has the power to terrify audiences to this very day.

The brainchild of writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the story of how Alien came to be is one of risk and timing. Dan O’Bannon worked on a student film called Dark Star with John Carpenter and it was through this that he got into contact with Ronald Shusett. Shusett had heard about Dark Star from a friend and contacted both O’Bannon and Carpenter. After a phone call with both, he found that he had more of a rapport with O’Bannon and invited him to his house. They both decided that they would like to work together on a project, and Shusett had acquired the rights to the Philip K. Dick short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. Meanwhile, O’Bannon had been working on his own script about an alien monster that systematically attacks and kills the crew of a space ship. He had written 29 pages so far and was stuck. Shusett read the initial pages and decided that they should focus on O’Bannon’s script as it would be a cheaper film to shoot.

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ATH ORIGINS Ep #12 – Prometheus

Welcome to the second week of our ORIGINS month in which we’re taking a look back at the origin stories of each of the hosts of the podcast. Last week we went back to the very beginning to talk Dead Space. Let’s jump ahead a few weeks to our PROMETHEUS episode, which just so happens to be Jonathan’s introduction to the podcast, as well as Graham’s introduction as frequent guest!

 

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Who Cares About Spoilers Anyway?

Do spoilers matter in our movie marketing? Jonathan doesn’t seem to think so, and can’t wait to tell you all about it!

 

Hey Internet people! I’ve got a problem that I’ve been mulling over for quite some time. Do spoilers in trailers matter? Does a trailer revealing a particular plot point or showing the last moment from the last scene “ruin the experience” for you? For me, the short answer is no. The longer answer? I don’t know. My arc as a moviegoer has gone from trying to avoid anything about a movie until I see it in theaters to being completely ambivalent. I have to be careful around my more spoiler-cautious pals these days because I forget that they might want to go into a movie completely fresh.

 

So, what changed? When did it change? Could this trailer for ATOMIC BLONDE (which I love) be the culprit?

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