The Martian premiere wows London

The storm that hit his location in the red planet separates him from his crew that presumes him to be dead. However, Damon’s comedic charm acts as a double-edged sword.

“I don’t need to be another person to rail against these superhero movies”.

“And I brought it up to Ridley when I first met him….”

“A man on his own talking to himself, it could get boring”, says Scott, who rigged the tiny mobile cameras, popularized today by everyone from surfers to waterskiing squirrels, all over his set. “We congratulate everyone at ISRO on this special occasion”, he says. ‘No one will remember’.

At the museum, Barratt gave an even stronger endorsement – one that’s sure to warm any space geek’s heart: “One of the themes of the movie is, No. 1, nerds rock”.

Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain were among the stars at the London premiere of The Martian on Thursday. A violent sandstorm forces the expedition to evacuate.

Enter a modern friend: Instead of Wilson the volleyball, Mark Watney has a Go Pro (several, in fact).

“I definitely have with The Martian“.

There’s a scene – we won’t get specific about it – when Damon’s Watney wells up and cries.

Could The Martian earn him an Oscar nomination?

After many hours of being interviewed about “The Martian” at the Toronto global Film Festival, Matt Damon still looked thrilled to talk about the movie, even its early reviews. “That was the writer’s intent, so hopefully we’ve held onto it”. It was just an accident.

One move from the Affleck playbook that Damon won’t be copying, is donning superhero tights.

What kind of research did you do? And he knows it. “I mean, I’m an actor”, he said, deadpan. You don’t have to.

Have you ever seen Jessica look better?

He told Newsbeat: “When I saw the clip, I understood it because it was not in context”. All I care about is that the reader enjoys himself or herself while they’re reading the book.

Answer: Originally the book was just a serial I posted a chapter at a time to my website.

The mountainous backdrop of Mars serves as the setting of Ridley Scott’s latest directorial effort, an adaption of the best-selling debut novel by Andy Weir. But what excites me most about “The Martian” is that it’s going to attract a wide audience, and I have no doubt that plenty of non-science-nerds will enjoy it, too. He is bold, taking insane risks because there is no other way.

How did you come on board for The Martian?

“That’s a very fine line to walk, and Matt just did it perfectly”. Now he is one of the hottest names in sci-fi, thanks to “The Martian“.

Watney’s life on Mars is intercut with parallel events at NASA headquarters back on Earth and on the Hermes – the ship containing the rest of Watney’s crew, now heading back home. “Everybody directs slightly differently, but he’s just incredibly unique”. And, he said, he was very happy that the film has an global focus as people from all backgrounds team together to rescue Damon’s character. And it celebrates sacrifice.

I’ve written a fair amount about The Martian already this year, and still have more planned in advance of its release next week, but having seen the film now, I have more to say.

“Matt said that when you wear those suits, you feel like a big baby because you can’t do anything”. The motion picture academy is into solitary sojourns into space: Gravity rocketed into the best-picture race just two years ago.

As the only – and therefore smartest – man on the planet, Watney displays the Swiss-Army-knife mental abilities of astronauts: “He has to do everything on his own”. Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, and Vincent Cassel also star.