It was a couple weeks ago that 20th Century Fox gave us our first look at Ridley Scott's The Martian in the form of some brand new stills... but this brand new viral video for the movie is infinitely cooler. Check it out below!
Posted by the YouTube account Ares: Live, this isn't a trailer for The Martian, but rather - it seems - a video that was designed specifically for the marketing. And when's the last time you saw a piece of viral so over-stuffed with big name talent? Matt Damon gets the biggest portion of the spotlight here, but co-stars Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Michael Pena and more get in on the action as well. It's a fun preview, and - with any luck - the first of many to come.
In case you couldn't tell from the video, the larger context of what's going on here is that this crew of fun astronauts is launching into space with the hopes of landing on Mars. The good news is that they make it, the bad news is that it isn't long before they're struck by serious drama. A storm winds up hitting the settlement that they establish, and they are forced to abandon their mission... unaware that they leave a man behind. Matt Damon's character, Mark Watney, is left stranded on the surface of the Red Planet, and must use any and all of the resources at his disposal to try and both survive and contact NASA back on Earth.
Interestingly, one of the best times we've seen A-listers take full part in a movie's viral marketing was back in 2012 when Michael Fassbender was enlisted into videos for Prometheus... another Ridley Scott film. I wonder if this means that the director really likes this kind of marketing, and uses his resources to make them as good as they can possibly be.
Back in April, I attended the 20th Century Fox presentation at CinemaCon where the first ever footage from The Martian was shown, and I must say that I was very impressed. It took a very interesting tone - emphasizing a comedy element in the survival drama - and it looks like it could be a very entertaining movie. Hopefully this new viral for the film is an indication that we may get our first trailer soon enough, so be sure to stay tuned in the coming weeks for the footage!
The Martian opens in theaters nationwide on November 25th.
