I can get more into the plot specifics later - I even posted a breakdown here years ago and can't find it - but rest assured, not even a blind director could screw this one up. The story/concept is too good, and they finally have the PERFECT cast in place with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as the two leads (and basically the only two actors in the entire movie). Now, after years of waiting to see this thing get made (I first read the script in '08), Passengers has finally been given the greenlight by Sony, and officially starts shooting in September. Think Gravity meets The Martian meets Titanic (in that it's ultimately a romance aboard a giant cruise ship... in space). And with a fall start date, I'm betting it'll take that early October Gravity / The Martian release date next year as well. Seriously, this one's going to be special. And if anyone wants to read the script, hit me up at my spam account and I'll send it over: theohoff20@gmail.com. Would love to get a conversation going...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/jennifer-lawrence-chris-pratts-sci-802876

You've ever what? Written? Read?

I have a minute, so here's the basic gist (and it's been a while since I've read it, so forgive any inaccuracies)...

It's set in the future. Maybe 100 years from now. There's a massive transport ship taking 3000 or so people (if not more) to a new planet, one that has already been colonized. So this is a pretty common thing. I can't remember the exact duration, but the trip takes 100 years or so, and everyone aboard is cryogenically frozen, sleeping in pods, ala Alien. However, one day, Chris Pratt's character's pod randomly opens. He's the only one awake. But the ship's computer system acts as if everyone's awake and, like any cruise ship, has all kind of restaurants, shops, workout rooms, swimming pools, video games, etc (to be utilized in the weeks before arriving on the new planet).

Upon awakening, Pratt's character is guided by robots from station to station for the re-aclamation process, but the entire time he's wondering why the hell he's the only one awake. Turns out, his pod malfunctioned, woke him up, and triggered the ship's computer to start cooking all the food and opening all the living/shopping/gaming areas/etc. That's when Pratt's character realizes... this happened 80 years too soon. And there's no way to fix the pod. So the first 1/3 of the movie is Pratt's character coming to terms with the fact that he's likely going to die alone on this ship before it ever reaches its destination. Imagine that early scene in Prometheus, where David is just hanging out on the ship alone before everyone wakes up, mixed with a bit of Will Forte in The Last Man on Earth, and that's the basic vibe.

Each passenger's pod has a glass window, complete with a basic readout of their age/job/etc. And in all the attempts to fix his own pod, Pratt ultimately falls for/becomes infatuated with Lawrence's character, asleep in her nearby pod. So, after months - maybe even years - of being alone, finally, Pratt's character can't take it anymore and decides to open her pod. She wakes, he acts as if her pod malfunctioned as well, the two eventually fall in love, and, well, you can guess if she eventually learns the truth or not.

Overall, it's such a brilliant conceit. It goes from "Should I wake her?" to "Should I tell her?" and both scenarios are excruciatingly tense and milked for everything they're worth. And the ending... man, the ending... the final image/sequence is so, so good. I get so fired up just thinking about this movie again.

So, is it just to be understood that Chris Pratt is in everything from here on out?

This is the first thing I thought of

quote:

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Jeff Megall: Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they're looking to make. Message From Sector Six. All takes place in a space station. They're actively looking for some co-financing.
Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It's the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn't they blow up in an all oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: Probably. But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the you know, whatever device.' [beat] Brad Pitt. Catherine Zeta-Jones. They've just finished ravishing each other's bodies for the first time. They lie naked, suspended in air underneath the heavens. Pitt lights up. He starts blowing smoke rings all around Catherine's naked, flawless body, as the galaxies go whizzing by over the glass-domed ceiling. Now, tell me that doesn't work for you.
Nick Naylor: I'd see that movie.
Jeff Megall: I'd buy the ******* DVD. [beat] You know, if the Academy didn't send them to me for free. [beat] You know, you guys ought to think about designing a cigarette to be released simultaneously with the movie.
Nick Naylor: Sector Sixes.
Jeff Megall: Nobody's ever done it with a cigarette.
Nick Naylor: Wow.

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I thought Jennifer Lawrence was contractually obligated to only appear in movies with Bradley Cooper.

Anyone ever seen Rocket Man? It killed me as a 6th grader.



Anyway, most of the middle third of the movie revolves around the main character being awake during the long journey to Mars and obsessing over his still-sleeping mission mate he has a crush on. Hilarity ensues.

quote:

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they've been buzzing about this over on blu-ray.com for months now. Initially I wasn't sold on Jennifer Lawrence in a "hard sci-fi" role, but from what I hear from a few people who've read the script the characters and acting isn't very sci-fi at all, it's more romantic drama, so it should be right in her wheelhouse.

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Hard Sci-Fi

Always good to see science-fiction that isn't just fantasy in space.

...although living with Jennifer Lawrence in zero-g might constitute fantasy.