Winston T. Boogie
Senior HTF Member
The original story follows Roy McBride, an engineer on the autism spectrum who travels across the solar system in search of his father, who disappeared 20 years prior during a mission to Neptune in search of extraterrestrial life. The film was co-written by director James Gray and Ethan Gross.
Directed by James Gray
Stars Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones
“The science-fiction genre is so tricky because there are elements of fantasy usually involved, and there are also fantastical elements. What I’m trying to do is the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie. Space is awfully hostile to us. It’s kind of a Heart of Darkness story about traveling to the outer edge of our solar system. I have a lot of hopes for it but it is certainly ambitious…It starts shooting July 17th, so not too far away. I’m filled with terror, but that’s fine. I want to try and do something specific and rather different, and the intention is to make a film which is almost science fact, and it takes place entirely in space. I had read about NASA trying to find ‘emotionally undeveloped’ people to travel to Mars, because being cooped up for a year and a half is very difficult. So the idea that I had was to sort of mix a kind of Conrad-ian story, a ‘Heart of Darkness,’ with the idea in which NASA has made a miscalculation about one of its astronauts, who cannot handle deep space. So the idea is a kind of mental breakdown in space, and to do it almost like Apollo footage: incredibly realistic . So no sound in space, obviously and to do it distinguishing itself with the idea that, in a way, human beings need the earth.” -James Gray