In 2017, filmmaker James Gray was out doing press rounds for his explorer drama “The Lost City of Z” when he talked about his next project – the sprawling sci-fi drama “Ad Astra” starring Brad Pitt.
At the time he told Collider that: “what I’m trying to do is the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say ‘space is awfully hostile to us’.”
Well he finished the movie which opened last year to strong reviews from critics and a more muted reaction from audiences. In terms of the scientific accuracy though, the film stretched credibility on that front even if it didn’t fully flaunt the laws of physics like many others do.
The film has faced a surprising amount of criticism though for its scientific inaccuracies, partly due to Gray’s interview comments. But in a recent Instagram live interview with the film’s producer Rodrigo Teixeira, Gray explained that realism was never the film’s goal:
“We were trying to do a kind of fable or a myth in space… one of the things that troubled me about Ad Astra was when people said, ‘Well, in the actual science his hair would be floating in zero G or he wouldn’t be able to sail through the rings of a planet.’ To me, it’s a very fatuous level of critique. You don’t read the myth of Icarus and say, ‘Wax on feathers wouldn’t allow you to fly.’ Of course that’s true, but it’s all about metaphor essentially. I felt that we were trying to get at, and [cinematographer] Hoyte van Hoytema understood, something mythic, almost like a fable.”
Box-office wise “Ad Astra” proved to be fizzier – making just $135 million of a $90 million budget.
Source: Instagram
