We still have nearly two weeks to wait before audiences around the country will be able to see Ridley Scott's The Martian, but special screenings are being hosted all over the place. Earlier this month it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and soon critics everywhere will be able to see it for review. None of those showings, however, will be anywhere near as cool as the one that just happened up in space:
This weekend, the folks at 20th Century Fox did the folks at NASA a little favor by having a special screening of The Martian scheduled on the International Space Station. The Tweet above comes courtesy of astronaut Kjell Lindgren, but his crew-mate, Scott Kelly, also posted a message about seeing the film:
As excited as I am personally to see The Martian, I have to wonder if there was any hesitance on the part of either Fox or NASA to have the astronauts on the International Space Station watch the film. After all, while the movie itself is very pro-science, and uses it in very fun and interesting ways, the reality is that it also happens to be about a guy who winds up getting stranded on a distant planet after something goes terribly wrong on a mission. Is that really what you want folks living in space for a year to be thinking about?
If early buzz can be believed, it's possible that the astronauts will be distracted by the doom and disaster by the fact that the movie is just really good. Early reviews have been incredibly positive, as it currently sits with a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes with 33 reviews counted. It appears that The Martian is Ridley Scott's best film in years, and there are already many predicting that it could play a significant part in this year's Academy Awards race. It's worth mentioning that the Oscars have never awarded a science-fiction title with the Best Picture honor, so if everything goes well, this could be a historic year.
Those who regularly follow movie news will recognize that this isn't the first time we've heard about special screenings on the International Space Station. Just a few years ago the folks up in space got a special opportunity to watch Joss Whedon's The Avengers when it was still tearing it up in theaters. It also seems that movie night is a big thing on the ship, as Scott Kelly has posted messages about screenings before...
The Martian will be in theaters on October 2nd.
