Taking his commitment to realistic sci-fi very seriously indeed, Ridley Scott sent a page from The Martian into space for real this month, hitching a ride for it on the maiden voyage of NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The first page of Drew Goddard's original draft, the sheet bears Scott’s drawing of Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut declaring that he’ll “science the shit out of this planet,” – a line from the book upon which the film is based.
Taking off on December 5, the Orion embarked on a four-and-a-half hour orbital flight that took it 5600 miles above the Earth’s surface with Scott’s page in tow. “NASA really rolled out the red carpet for us,” explains executive producer Aditya Sood. “In the capsule they had some personal objects that were important to people involved in the Orion project and one of the things was Ridley’s drawing on the cover page of The Martian script. This is a movie about people who are really passionate about science and space-travel, so that was a really great moment for us."
Based on Andy Weir’s self-published 2012 novel, The Martian sees Damon’s Watney as part of a science team conducting experiments on the red planet. When a storm forces the team to evacuate, Watney is injured and presumed dead, then left behind to fend for himself. With little hope of rescue and limited resources, he does what any self-respecting Breaking Bad fan would do and uses the power of science to keep himself alive on the planet’s barren surface. Currently shooting, the film is scheduled for a November 2015 release and co-stars Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig and Chiwetel Ejiofor.