Ridley Scott’s The Martian: Robinson Crusoe’s tale re-told and adapted to fit contemporary times

The Martian is Ridley Scott's movie adaptation of Andy Weir's 2012 science fiction novel of the same name. Produced by 20th Century Fox, it is scheduled for release on 25 November 2015, in the process, bumping off the Prometheus sequel from the studio's schedule. Scott will be directing the film project from a screenplay by Drew Goddard based on Weir's book. Filming just began this November Budapest so there is no official The Martian trailer just yet.

The Martian chronicles the story 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, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Donald Glover, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, and Mackenzie Davis. According to producer Simon Kinberg, in a report from Slash Film, "Every actor is doing it for significantly less than their normal fee. It's a real labor of love."

Incidentally, 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 early last month. 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.