In 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of the movie “Mars Attacks!” Actors and roles, plot, reviews and reviews - we recall everything about this remarkable product of the film industry.
Making a movie and casting
During a shopping trip, the future screenwriter Jonathan James stumbled upon a collection of 50s cards, Mars Attacks! These were mini-comics telling about an alien attack. Cards about flying saucers and strange big-eyed and big-eyed Martians were the brainchild of a whole team of artists and were attached to chewing gum.
Jonathan came up with a great idea - to create a film based on this story about warlike aliens. He shared his thoughts with the future director of the film, Tim Burton. However, work on the film almost ended, before even having begun. According to initial estimates, the implementation of James's script would cost the studio a fantastic amount of $ 280 million.
James was even suspended for some time from working on the film, but in the end he was able to provide as many as 12 versions of the script that would not require such a financial outlay. As a result, the film cost the creators $ 70 million. The bulk of this amount was spent on special effects.
The movie “Mars Attacks!”, The actors of which coexisted on the screen with funny drawn Martians, was Burton's first experience in the use of computer graphics.
The creators wanted to spoil the sci-fi movies of the fifties. What else stands out the movie “Mars Attacks!”? The actors involved in the project, according to the director's plan, were to be diverse - stars of the first magnitude coexisted with colleagues from category B films and even amateurs.
Actors and roles
We continue to recall the movie masterpiece "Mars attacks!" The actors of the film and the roles, the heroes, of which there are many in the tape, were bright, characteristic and well remembered by the audience. And this despite the fact that due to the large number of characters each did not have much screen time!
Actors of the movie “Mars Attacks!” in his place: Pierce Brosnan is dressed in a perfect suit and conquers women's hearts in the guise of Professor Donald Kessler, Sarah Jessica Parker leads a women's fashion show as Natalie Lake, Michael J Fox appeared in the guise of an ambitious television journalist, Jack Nicholson - somewhat insane President of the United States James Dale (he also played the entrepreneur Art Land), and Denis de Vito - a joker, a player and a merry fellow.
Glenn Close played the first lady Marsha Dale, the rising star Natalie Portman - the daughter of President Teffi Dale. Martin Short played the role of spokesman for Jerry Ross, Lisa Mary - disguised alien. Annette Bening played the role of Barbara Land, Lucas Haas embodied the image of Richie Norris, and Sylvia Sidney - his grandmother Florenz. Jim Brown played boxer Byron Williams.
Plot
It is difficult to answer straight away who is the main character of the movie “Mars Attacks!” Actors embodied many images and several stories, which at the end are interwoven into one.
The plot focuses on the President of the United States with his family, a couple of tenacious journalists, a former heavyweight boxer, the militaristic family of Norris with a pacifist younger son and a senile grandmother.
Residents of the Earth will find out that alien ships are seen in orbit . Soon the first contact took place. Martians said they came in peace, but they shot several dozen citizens.
Earthlings write off what happened as a coincidence and invite alien representatives to Congress, but the alien invaders again take up arms. While people hope for a peaceful outcome, Martians openly laugh at them and put on stupid experiments on prisoners.
Aliens were destroying earthlings all over the planet, and humanity would have been defeated if it were not for the accidental discovery of Richie Norris and his grandmother. They learned that one of the songs popular in the 1950s literally explodes the Martians' brains.
Reviews
Spectators and critics rather coolly met the poisonous fantastic comedy "Mars Attacks!" The actors and creators of the film hardly expected that they would watch and revise this movie in 20 years, because it almost failed at the box office! The tape raised only $ 100 million with a budget of 70. In Europe, the picture was better than in the United States.
Many perceived "Mars is attacking!" as a parody of the recently released Independence Day, although the creators set themselves the goal of playing low-budget science fiction films. Many were confused by the slightly confused plot and the abundance of characters. However, the creators with ease and a considerable share of black humor got rid of them.
Total
The crew of the movie "Mars Attacks!" did a great job. The tape was nominated for the Saturn Award for the best costumes, special effects, and received an award for the soundtrack. For the best performance, the team received the Hugo Award. But the most significant indicator of the high quality of the picture is its long-lasting success. And today, the viewer easily recognizes funny big-eyed Martians with plastic blasters.
Interesting facts about the work of the crew
- The screenwriters of the film could not decide exactly how the speech of the aliens would sound, and during the work they marked it as ack, ack, ack, ack. As a result, this sound, pronounced in different ways, became the Martian language.
- The dress of the Martian, who penetrated the White House, had no fasteners; it was literally sewn up on the actress Lisa Marie.
- The sounds of the Martian blaster shots are taken from the 50s film “War of the Worlds”.
- The film used shots of a real explosion. The director managed to photograph the construction demolition of a casino in Las Vegas.