Solaris (2002)

Starring George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, and Ulrich Tukur.  Cinematography by Peter Andrews. Editing by Mary Ann Bernard. Produced by James Cameron, Jon Landau, and Rae Sanchini.  Written and Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

In the not too distant future we find ourselves on the space station Prometheus. The crew has severed all communications with Earth and Dr. Chris Kelvin (played by George Clooney) has been sent to investigate.  Shortly after he arrives he discovers that the crew has gone apparently insane.  The mission’s commander has committed suicide and two remaining members (played by Viola Davis and Jeremy Davies) are showing signs of extreme stress.

It all seems to root from the crew’s investigation of Solaris; a mysterious planet that has invaded the minds of the scientists on-board the Prometheus and is exploiting their weaknesses.  After struggling through a confusing day, Kelvin goes to sleep and wakes up with his wife (played by Natasha McElhone), who committed suicide a few years before, beside him.

Steven Soderbergh is known as an experimental filmmaker who has not confined himself to one type of film.  One genre that he had yet to tackle was science fiction.  He said that he “hadn't ever come near sci-fi before, mostly because the hardware aspects of the genre don't really interest me.” 

But when he was probed by the executives at Twentieth Century Fox about what kind of science fiction films interested him, he told them about the Russian film Solaris, of which he had also read the novel that it was adapted from.  What intrigued him about the story was that it wasn’t driven by futuristic technology; rather it was a love story that used space merely as a backdrop for the drama. Fox went about to secure the rights to remake of the film.

James Cameron’s production company Lightstorm Entertainment owned the rights to Solaris.  There was a time that Cameron had thought about remaking the film himself, but when Soderbergh expressed an interest in doing it, Cameron happily took the role of producer to the project.  So shortly after completing his film Traffic, Soderbergh went to work molding Solaris into his vision. 

He used Cameron as a sounding board for issues that came up, but overall Cameron and the rest of the Lightstorm crew was very hands off with the production.  They allowed Soderbergh to make the movie the way he saw appropriate.  Solaris is a wonderfully unique film and stands out as one of Soderbergh’s finest projects.

Budget: $47,000,000

Total US Gross: $14,970,038

Genre: Science Fiction

Runtime: 99 Minutes

US Release Date: 11/27/02

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Awards: none

Tagline: There Are Some Places Man Is Not Ready To Go.

Quote: “We don't have to think like that any more.  We're together now. Everything we've done is forgiven. Everything.”