his fall, watch humankind become 		 actors
Val Kilmer
Carrie-Anne Moss
Benjamin Bratt
Tom Sizemore
history in the slickest sci-flick to hit screens. With a star studded cast on a death defying mission, Red Planet will take you from the rapidly dying Earth to the planet of salvation, Mars.

  The vexatious Vancouver-born Carrie-Anne Moss, who graced screens in last year's smash-hit The Matrix, is gearing up for more sexy moves and deadlier punches in this sci-fi thriller. Also starring in Red Planet is Val Kilmer of Batman Forever and The Saint fame. The two are on a very important mission to Mars, with hopes of settling the land and making it habitable for earthlings who have destroyed their home planet's eco-system.

 Terence Stamp

director
Antony Hoffman

locations
Jordan
Australia

outtake
Rumor has it that
the temperamental Kilmer and Sizemore were feuding on set.
 
  They plan to colonize the brazen Martian environment through "terraforming," which literally means to change a planet's environmental design. In the movie, scientists have been sending unmanned robotic pods for over 30 years to stimulate algae growth on the surface of Mars. By doing this, the scientists believe that the overall temperature of the planet will rise and slightly melt its polar ice caps. With water, carbon, and oxygen, the planet has the
essential ingredients to create trees, animals, and oceans, making it the perfect place to resettle Earth's population.

  But things don't go as planned and Mars isn't as uninhabited as the team first thought. The crew crash lands on the surface, rendering their scientific, communication and escape equipment completely useless. To add to the mishaps, due to the malfunctions, their exploration and mapping robot turns mad and tries to make the team turn against each other and scrap their cause. That's where the real adventure begins.

  Moss, who plays the defiant Commander Kate Bowman, will also join veteran actor Terence Stamp of The Limey, Tom Sizemore, who played along side Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, and Law & Order's Benjamin Bratt. Together, the team has to put aside their personality conflicts, ethics and morals, and complete a mission destined for doom.

  While Red Planet sounds like an excerpt between cult-classics like 2001 and Aliens, it's destined to have the slick stylistic feel of The Matrix since they've used the same sets and stunning visual effects. Red Planet should not be confused with Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel of the same name, nor is it a remake of the old 50's sci-fi B films like Red Planet Mars or The Angry Red Planet.

  While Mars mayhem was all the universe back in the '50s, it died out through the years. But ever since the millennium, there's been quite a Martian revival. Just this spring, Mission to Mars had landed in movie theaters and next summer, John Carpenter's sci-fi flick The Ghost of Mars will take place in a mining field. And you can't forget Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1990's Total Recall, where he played an
unsuspecting agent on a secret mission to the red, rocky planet.

  So don't blast off to theaters this fall without catching the latest in Mars excitement, because Red Planet is poised to be an experience that's just outta this world.

- Zack Medicoff