Christmas on Mars
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This article or section contains information about one or more scheduled or expected films. The content will change as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available. |
| Christmas on Mars | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Wayne Coyne |
| Written by | Wayne Coyne |
| Starring | Steven Drozd Wayne Coyne Steve Burns |
| Music by | The Flaming Lips |
| Cinematography | Wayne Coyne |
| Editing by | Wayne Coyne |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. (France) Warner Independent Pictures (US) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
Christmas on Mars is the science fiction feature film from the Oklahoma psychedelic alternative rock band The Flaming Lips. It started development in 2001. Filming was completed in October of 2005, and the film premiered on May 25th, 2008 at the Sasquatch! Music Festival.[1].
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[edit] Cast
- Steven Drozd as Major Syrtis
- Wayne Coyne as The Martian
- Steve Burns as Astronaut #1
- Scott Booker as Psychiatrist
- Isaac Brock
- Adam Goldberg as Mars Psychiatrist
- Elijah Wood
- Fred Armisen
According to the band's website, Christmas on Mars is a film "written and directed by Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, and featuring all of the band and many of their associates as actors (including singer-songwriter and former host of Blue's Clues Steve Burns, The Hebrew Hammer star Adam Goldberg, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, and Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live fame).
[edit] Story
The film tells the story of the experiences of Major Syrtis during the first Christmas on a newly-colonized Mars. Coyne has described the film as "Maybe Eraserhead or Dead Man crossed with some kind of fantasy and space aspects, like The Wizard of Oz and maybe A Space Odyssey, except done without real actors or money, and set at Christmas-time. The story that unfolds is intended to hint at childlike magic within a tragic and realistic situation."
Coyne elaborated to Rolling Stone magazine: "It's sometime in the future, Mars has been sort of conquered and there's a space station on it but the space program has gone into decline and these people are kind of stuck up there. They're in the process of converting the spaceships that took them there into a place to live in and that process doesn't go too smoothly. The whole thing ends up very dilapidated, very un-futuristic, un-'2001'. There's an element of confidence among the scientists, but the overall view is that things seem kind of doomed."
The main character, Major Syrtis (played by Steven Drozd, the band's multi-instrumentalist and arranger/composer), is trying to organise a Christmas pageant to celebrate the birth of the first colonist baby. Coyne explains that this birth is also special for other reasons, "The hype they've added to this Mars mission is that this beautiful woman is giving birth to this sort of artificial impregnation from this bubble that she wears on her stomach, which is the way infants are gonna be born in the future. It's all scientifically timed so she gives birth to this baby the second it hits midnight on Christmas. So it's symbolically the beginning of a new civilization. But instead of being born from religious ideas it's born from a science idea."
Wayne further elaborated to MTV.com: "Against a background of descending madness, Major Syrtis is trying to use the pageant to provide hope amongst the colonists, and the film tells the story of his struggle. You see his humiliation and his self-doubt because there are all these haphazard things that keep getting in the way of his determination to celebrate this first Christmas on Mars. A lot of the people are committing suicide, and one of them is this sort of Santa Claus that's supposed to preside over this big celebration. He dies right at the beginning and this presents Steven's character with several problems." Fortunately, Major Syrtis finds an unlikely ally in Coyne's strange and mysterious character, a "Martian that lands, but the Martian isn't really perceived as a Martian. People just sort of think he's another crazy guy who's flipped and turned himself green. They can't find a quick replacement for Santa so they just use this Martian guy. So the Martian guy becomes the Martian and Santa Claus at the same time."
[edit] Filming
At the beginning of 2002, over 20 minutes of edited film were ready, with music and preliminary sound effects also completed for these scenes. The movie was shot on 16mm film, with most of the sets based in Wayne's Oklahoma City house. Other scenes have been filmed in and around Oklahoma City, using locations such as old industrial facilities.
[edit] Plans for Release
The band has detailed its unconventional plans for Christmas on Mars on its release through Warner distribution; the movie will be screened at special concerts by The Flaming Lips, creating a unique sensory experience with the movie acting as a backdrop to the live music.
It is not intended for 'Christmas on Mars' to be released at conventional movie theaters. Instead, a DVD release will be preceded by a number of screenings at rock venues. In true Flaming Lips style, the plan is to use more than the standard movie screening equipment and turn each screening into 'a big visceral event'. Speaking to mtv.com, Wayne has explained, "We want to show the movie with a mega-sound system and snow machines and just make it like a bigger event than what has become the typical movie-going experience. I'm hoping that people can watch this movie while they drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and have a good time." It is expected that the DVD will be released by Warner Bros, and that it will include a number of bonus features. These will include out-takes, a score-only audio track, probably all of the band's promotional videos for Warner Bros, and possibly (director of photography) Bradley Beesley's documentary short, 'The Flaming Lips Have Landed'.
The Flaming Lips are eyeing next March's South by Southwest film festival for the release of the film. According to an October 2007 Billboard.com interview with frontman Wayne Coyne: "It is coming. In fact, it's better than ever. Because it's taken so long, we've become better filmmakers. There's better computer effects. I think it will be much better."
After Christmas on Mars' SXSW premiere, Coyne mentioned that the band plans to take the film on a tour of some sort. "I want the Flaming Lips audience to shape this. It'll be like our live show, which evolves as it goes. We'll show it to the audience and let them talk out there on message boards, and then maybe we'll take that and go back and change it and put it out there again and see what they think. It'll be a different experience than sitting at home and watching a DVD, for sure. I don't know if a lot of bands can do that, but the Flaming Lips sure can."
By October 2007, the film was in the final editing stage and the band was also transferring it to HD and adding "in-depth special effects."
The film premiered on May, 25th 2008 at the Sasquatch! Music Festival.
[edit] Trailer
A trailer for Christmas on Mars was first made available on the band's Fight Test EP, and can now be found along with movie information on The Flaming Lips' own website.
[edit] Soundtrack
Two tracks from the forthcoming movie soundtrack, "Protonilus Death March" and "Syrtis Major" were released as a 5000-only picture-disc EP late in 2004, available only through the band's online store in conjunction with the purchase of their limited-edition pictorial biography Waking Up With a Placebo Headwound. "Syrtis Major" and another soundtrack cut, "Xanthe Terra", were also released as B-sides to the 2-part European single release of "Do You Realize??" These songs are both entirely instrumental, in a similar style to acclaimed Lips instrumentals such as the Grammy-winning Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia).
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[edit] References
- ^ "Flaming Lips Add Shows, Christmas on Mars Screening". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2008-12-04.
