Ridley Scott To Direct ‘The Martian’ With Matt Damon In The Lead Role

1CK1S

Looks like those early reports panned out. In April of this year, Drew Goddard vacated the director’s chair of 20th Century Fox's "The Martian,” but reports surfaced that the studio wanted Matt Damon to play the lead. Well, that turns out to be correct. Damon will star in “The Martian” for Fox and Goddard's replacement will be none other than Ridley Scott.

THR reports that Goddard, who wrote the adaptation of the space adventure book, had to leave the project due to his directing commitments for Sony’s planned Spider-Man spin-off, “The Sinister Six” (let’s not even go into how it must feel to abandon your own project for a franchise that seems to be sinking fast). Said to be in a similar key of Robert Zemeckis’ “Cast Away” and Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13,” the movie focuses on an astronaut who is stranded on a Martian colony and struggles to survive. Back on Earth, NASA tries to mount a rescue mission.

The two cinematic antecedents make one ask: is Damon the new Tom Hanks? He certainly has the affable, nice-guy personality for it. When will Scott make this one, and will it be next? Well, it sounds like it’s on a kind of fast-track which makes you wonder who will be directing “Prometheus 2” when it arrives in 2016. Our guess is probably not Scott, he’ll executive produce, hand over the reins and get involved just enough so fans won’t balk. But hey, we could be wrong. Next up for Scott is "Exodus: Gods and Kings," which arrives December 12th.