NASA’s revelation that liquid water exists on the surface of Mars was “manna from the heavens” for 20th Century Fox’s new sci-fi film “The Martian”, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Cynics quickly pounced on the coincidence.

On Monday, film director Ridley Scott did nothing to dispel the notion that the US space agency was waiting for the most opportune time to present its findings about water on the Red Planet.
“I knew that months ago,” Scott told Yahoo Movies.

Scott worked closely with NASA on the making of The Martian, which is based on Andy Weir’s novel about an American astronaut (Matt Damon) who is stranded on Mars and uses his scientific knowledge and ingenuity to survive.

According to Scott, the topic of water on Mars came up during his discussions with the agency. “When I first talked to NASA, we got into all kinds of stuff and I said, ‘So I know you’ve got down there [these] massive glaciers,’” Scott said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, that the massive white thing [on the surface of Mars] that gets covered with dust, we think that’s ice.’ And I said, ‘Wow! Does that mean there was an ocean?’ Are we right now what Mars was 750 million years ago?’ And they went, ‘Uh, good question.’ So they want to go up there and find out.”