Martian, The

The Martian is an American feature film of the planetary exploration subgenre. It was directed by Ridley Scott with a screenplay written by Drew Goddard, based on the novel The Martian written by Andy Weir. The film was produced by Ridley Scott's studio, Scott Free Productions and distributed through Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. It premiered theatrically in the United States on October 2nd, 2015. The film stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who takes an ill-fated manned mission to the planet Mars, only to get left behind. Sucks to be him. Through wit and guile, he manages to eke out a life for himself on the Red Planet, while struggling to find a way to contact people back on Earth.