The real-life fable of the Red Planet robot that refused to die and the dedicated NASA team that kept it going.
, and candid accounts from Steve Squyres, JPL's principal investigator for the MER mission,"Good Night Oppy" is a triumph of the spirit blending archival NASA footage, current interviews with the main players, and breathtaking Martian CGI magic courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic.
Space.com: With oceans of NASA footage to sift through, what were the main challenges in composing a fitting tribute documentary?: NASA had an amazing cinematographer named John Beck Hofmann who'd shot most of this stuff back in the day and during critical moments of Opportunity and Spirit's mission. But the biggest challenge was just finding this archival stuff. It's not like it came in a super organized way.
Space.com: The film touches upon themes of hope, mortality and surpassing expectations. How did you approach the material in crafting a narrative that would resonate with audiences?: I don't usually make issue-based films or educational films. For the most part, my whole filmography has been about a person or group of people in some sort of extraordinary circumstances. I never thought a character of mine would be a robot.
Space.com: What was it like working with lead mission specialist Steve Squyres, especially when he was looking over those vintage Viking images of Mars?: Steve's incredible. I had read his book and it gave us such a leg up in making the documentary because he'd outlined the early part of the mission and it was so detailed. I expected Steve to be a lot more serious and more detached and unemotional than he actually is in person.
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