Matt Damon Starrer $630M Movie’s Mars Landscapes Weren’t Artificial Sets, the Iconic Location has Been the Red Planet for Multiple Classics
Matt Damon had a fantastic journey toward stardom with his best buddy Ben Affleck. The actor rose to fame with the 1998 release Good Will Hunting. The film was written by Damon and Affleck as they won an Oscar for the same. Over the years, the 52-year-old has been part of various successful movies.
He was part of Ridley Scott’s The Martian. The sci-fi film came out in 2015 and traced the story of Mark Watney, played by the Academy Award winner. The film revolves around an astronaut who finds himself stranded on Mars after he is injured and presumed dead by his team. Scott’s sci-fi drama was a success at the box office. The film showed Watney’s time on the red planet, and what’s interesting is the Mars landscape in the film was not artificial but shot at a live location.
Matt Damon’s The Martian was shot at an iconic location
Matt Damon starring The Martian was an iconic film directed by Ridley Scott. The film came out in 2015 and followed the story of Mark Watney and his time on Mars. The sci-fi film had amazing landscape shots while showcasing the astronaut’s time on the Red Planate.
The interesting fact is, the landscape and environment of Mars in the film were created through a combination of location filming and CGI. A total of 20 or so separate sets were built for shooting The Martian over around 70 days.
The outside scenes showing Mars’ distinctive sweeping landscapes, were shot in Wadi Rum, a vast desert region in southern Jordan. The location has sandstone and granite rock mountains among reddish sands, ideal for simulating a Martian landscape.
Wadi Rum goes in history as the iconic location to shoot sci-fi films related to Mars. Wadi Rum is also known as the ‘Valley of the Moon’. For the filming of Damon’s film about 4000 tonnes of red soil was brought from local mines onto the set to get the perfect shot. These were then color-coordinated to bring out the right red shade of Mars. The location was used in films like Red Planet, Mission to Mars, and The Last Days on Mars to depict the surface of the eponymous planet.
The Matt Damon starred film had many NASA scenes. They were shot in the Budapest Whale, a massive multifunctional building complex in Hungary, and Korda Studios, a facility with large soundstages.
Matt Damon became an astronaut in The Martian
Matt Damon played Mark Watney, an astronaut in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi drama The Martian. The film is based on Andy Weir’s self-published 2012 novel of the same name. Scott’s 2015 film follows an astronaut who becomes stuck on Mars after being injured and assumed dead by his team.
Watney must utilize the power of science to keep himself alive on Mars and discover a way to let NASA and his team know he’s still alive with limited supplies and a certain amount of time before his oxygen runs out.
Along with Damon, the sci-fi film stars Michael Pena, Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, and Kate Mara. It grossed $630 million at the box office after its release in 2015.
The Martian is available to rent on Apple TV+.
Source: Collider
