The Martian: Matt Damon stars as the modern-day equivalent of Robinson Crusoe, an astronaut stranded on Mars
20th Century Fox's The Martian, Ridley Scott's movie adaptation of Andy Weir's 2012 science fiction novel of the same name, is set for release on November 25. Directed by Scott from a screenplay written by Drew Goddard based on Weir's book, the movie follows the story of how an astronaut, stranded on Mars, struggles to survive.
Weir's novel The Martian is a fictional account of NASA astronaut Mark Watney, one of the first people on Mars. Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer, was left behind by his crew mates after a dust storm tore through their landing site. His fellow astronauts assumed he was killed by the storm as they saw him impaled by an antenna during the evacuation. Stranded on the Red Planet, he must improvise in order to survive. The teaser on Weir's novel at the Amazon store reads: "Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills - and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit - he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"
About his upcoming The Martian film, Scott tells Entertainment Weekly "It's quintessential Robinson Crusoe." In Scott's The Martian, Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney. Others confirmed in The Martian cast includes Jessica Chastain as Melissa Lewis, Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose, Kate Mara as Beth Johanssen, Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson, Michael Peña as Major Rick Martinez, Donald Glover as Rich Purnell, Jeff Daniels as Teddy Sanders, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Venkat Kapoor, Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck, Aksel Hennie as Alex Vogel, and Mackenzie Davis in a still undisclosed role.
In a publicity stunt for the movie, Scott's drawing of Matt Damon's stranded astronaut character on the cover page of Goddard's script famously made its way to space and back inside the crew capsule of NASA's Orion spacecraft during its first test flight. In Ridley's sketch, Matt Damon's Watney is seen saying, "I'll science the shit out of this planet," which is an actual line from the Andy Weir book.