Quote :

"During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive."

http://io9.com/sorry-interstellar-we-just-saw-some-of-the-martian-an-1699793860

4/24/2015 2:33:40 PM

I'm excited.

4/24/2015 2:43:20 PM

GNSP

[Edited on April 24, 2015 at 3:38 PM. Reason : asdf]

4/24/2015 3:37:47 PM

...Boobies!

4/24/2015 5:08:28 PM

Even if he signals earth, he's still gonna die. This looks terrible.

Like worse than mission to mars terrible.

4/27/2015 12:59:13 PM

Interstellar spinoff?

4/27/2015 1:10:57 PM

guys do yourself a favor... READ THE BOOK FIRST.

The book was incredible and it's not too long of a read... i think i knocked it out in one long evening.

4/27/2015 1:28:10 PM

Gravity 2

4/27/2015 2:56:45 PM

I thought the book was kind of boring. dude goes on for pages and pages about how his equipment works and what all he's gonna do when he takes his rover out and stuff. I get that it did a lot for the realism of the story, and the guy writes obsessively in his journal because he has no one to talk to, but it's not exactly a page turner. not the worst thing I've ever read, but my mind wandered a lot during the parts with Mark's POV

and finishing it in one long evening? it was like 400 pages. not super long, but most people aren't gonna crush that in one sitting

[Edited on April 27, 2015 at 3:44 PM. Reason : .]

4/27/2015 3:40:13 PM

i couldn't disagree more. that unique perspective and the attention to technical detail are what MADE it good.

4/27/2015 3:44:19 PM

6/8/2015 11:08:29 AM

6/8/2015 11:22:12 AM

The plot description didn't do too much for me, but that trailer looks pretty good.

6/8/2015 12:05:02 PM

I guess they didn't get the memo that the Ares program was cancelled a few years ago.

6/8/2015 12:07:49 PM

eh maybe you didn't get the memo that this is a work of fiction

6/8/2015 1:22:59 PM

Its called a joke.

6/8/2015 3:23:43 PM

Maybe you didnt get the memo about jokes on tww

6/8/2015 3:47:16 PM

apparently neither of you got the memo about there being no more memos

6/8/2015 4:31:39 PM

also I really want to see this

6/8/2015 4:43:48 PM

Book was great. Quick read but very entertaining.

6/8/2015 5:25:03 PM

Quote :

"I thought the book was kind of boring. dude goes on for pages and pages about how his equipment works and what all he's gonna do when he takes his rover out and stuff. I get that it did a lot for the realism of the story, and the guy writes obsessively in his journal because he has no one to talk to, but it's not exactly a page turner. not the worst thing I've ever read, but my mind wandered a lot during the parts with Mark's POV"

everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but some of them are wrong. none of them are more wrong than this guy's though

6/8/2015 5:44:28 PM

6/8/2015 5:56:58 PM

Soooo I was just kinda joking around when I made that Ares comment, but based upon the logo they are using for the movie, it looks like they took a lot of inspiration for the actual NASA Ares program. Here is the logo from the movie (only one I could find):



Here is the logo from the actual program:

6/9/2015 8:59:11 AM

That surprises me that they would continue to "take inspiration" from a NASA program where they used the program's exact name...

6/9/2015 9:41:36 AM

6/9/2015 11:09:04 AM

Matt Damon doesn't have comedic delivery down. Chris Pratt does as an example.

I read the book and the thing that sticks out is the humor of the main character. Otherwise its just like most space survival movies. I hope the humor doesn't get shitted on the entire movie by Damon.

6/9/2015 11:56:24 AM

^^^ lol

6/9/2015 12:04:39 PM

^^Ummm...Matt Damon can be pretty fuckin funny. Obviously he's not on Pratt's level, but it's not Seth Rogan trying to be an action hero.

6/9/2015 12:21:46 PM

Yeah Chris Pratt acts too dumb (albeit funny) to be in this type of roll. Matt Damon is a much better overall actor and is very good at being smart funny.

Plus an engineer trying to funny is going to be a lot more awkward funny than Chris Pratt being stupid funny in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. It just wouldn't fit.

6/9/2015 12:34:07 PM

6/10/2015 5:50:32 PM

Quote :

"none of them are more wrong than this guy's though"

because it felt like i was reading a technical manual at times? that comic ^ nails it.

6/10/2015 6:16:14 PM

Yeah that's why the book was so awesome. Some people enjoy stuff like that and other's don't.

6/10/2015 6:34:48 PM

which i think is why it's silly to suggest anyone is wrong for finding it boring. i understand why more technically minded people would enjoy reading something like this, and a lot of people who post on these forums fit that bill, but i would've preferred to have some of that space filled with mark breaking down and expressing how terrified, alone and depressed he might've felt being stranded on mars. you just didn't really get any of that, and so for as realistic as it was from a scientific standpoint, i thought it was pretty unrealistic from an emotional standpoint. i get that his optimism and sense of humor kept him going, but i would've liked to see him touch on some things that made him human. whatever extent to which they were covered was clearly not enough to be memorable to me.

or maybe mark just doesn't feel those things.

6/10/2015 6:45:15 PM

Wasn't it in the form of a journal? So wouldn't the movie follow that same story telling device? So using that reasoning maybe he just didn't put all the emotional stuff in his journal because he's an engineer and he wanted to only record relevant stuff (at least in his mind).

6/10/2015 6:53:56 PM

there is plenty of emotion in his writing, the author does an absolutely fantastic job making his mental state translate through his posts and I think it's a big part of why the book is so well received

6/11/2015 3:16:52 PM

So I am giving this a 75% chance to turn out just like World War Z. "Here is a title and bare-bones premise; now ignore everything else."

[Edited on June 11, 2015 at 3:52 PM. Reason : ""]

6/11/2015 3:52:33 PM

I imagine this may be a little easier to convert into a movie because World War Z was a bunch of different perspectives whereas this is just one.

6/11/2015 4:07:04 PM

Based on the trailer, I'm pretty sure this will be faithful. It was pretty evident from just the synopsis of things like World War Z or I, Robot that they threw away the source material.

6/11/2015 4:18:46 PM

Quote :

"there is plenty of emotion in his writing, the author does an absolutely fantastic job making his mental state translate through his posts"

like what though? other than just remaining optimistic and upbeat, what was there really? i know his whole thing was taking everything in stride, remaining calm and being humorous about his situation, and i finished the book a year ago, so maybe there are some key parts from his journals that i'm forgetting, but it just seemed like there were some good opportunities to dig deeper into the human condition that weir didn't go after. maybe that'd be too predictable or cliche or something. maybe you can wave it off and say mark watney doesn't think about that stuff. i think it's a fair criticism of an otherwise pretty solid book that just got a bit dull for me at times.

[Edited on June 11, 2015 at 6:22 PM. Reason : .]

6/11/2015 6:21:24 PM

I mean, what exactly do you want him to do? Break down and cry in his logs? He uses it vent his frustration plenty of times. There is a lot more emotion expressed in the other characters like hopelessness, panic, regret etc.

6/11/2015 6:49:02 PM

^^ there are a bunch of times where he almost breaks, you can feel the frustration come through in the writing

6/11/2015 7:55:49 PM

Quote :

"There is a lot more emotion expressed in the other characters like hopelessness, panic, regret etc."

yeah that's not as effective coming from secondary characters that weren't even fleshed out terribly well compared to how it would've been from the guy who is actually stuck on mars

6/11/2015 9:14:29 PM

I added the author on twitter. He said because of the media of course there can't be as much attention to technical detail, but the science/engineering portrayed in the film should be completely accurate (and he did give the concession that (people being human) there could be some boneheaded mistake he (or others) made, but should not detract from the overall precision of the plot)

[Edited on June 14, 2015 at 2:16 AM. Reason : ^ugh I have stopped e-arguing. if you don't like it then let the folk who do alone. (or stop troll)]

6/14/2015 2:13:03 AM

Just finished reading the book today. Will be seeing this day 1. I'll reserve all judgement on what was left out vs kept in until after seeing it.

October 2nd

[Edited on August 4, 2015 at 12:13 AM. Reason : .]

8/4/2015 12:03:02 AM

Couldn't put the book down. Love it. The movie should be great but the level of detail in the book is worth the read if you like this kinda stuff.

8/17/2015 10:48:03 PM

8/19/2015 10:57:50 AM

Quote :

" but the science/engineering portrayed in the film should be completely accurate"

how do you have a wind storm on Mars?

8/19/2015 12:19:42 PM

....what?

8/19/2015 12:22:36 PM

the atmosphere is super thin, how do they have the major wind storm that knocks down their antenna and causes him to be left behind? 60mph winds might kick up dust, but in an atmosphere that thin how does it push people around and knock things over?

[Edited on August 19, 2015 at 12:39 PM. Reason : so the entire book/film is based on science that they had to fudge (which isn't a big deal)]

8/19/2015 12:38:25 PM

Right, but 60 mph winds aren't the norm on Mars, 125 mph winds are and 375+ mph winds have been recorded.

8/19/2015 12:52:24 PM