Sunshine
If the sun dies, so do we.
Country
Production
Genre
Budget
$50 000 000
Box office
$32 017 803
Director
Actors
Scenario
Producer
Andrew Macdonald
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Mark Tildesley, Sue Whitaker, Guy Bradley
Audition
Gail Stevens, Donna Isaacson
Editing
Chris Gill
Whole Team (340)
Whole Team (340)
Short description
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.
What's left behind the scenes
- Danny Boyle was so exhausted from working on the fantastical project that he vowed never to shoot science fiction again.
- The hardest thing for the special effects team to create was the Sun. Ultimately, it was done using computer technology and turned out to be the longest special effect in terms of screen time ever created by the London studio.
- The plot does not revolve around the Sun fading for natural reasons. According to the latest scientific research, this will happen in approximately 5 billion years. According to the plot, a Q-ball (a type of non-topological soliton) formed during the Big Bang enters the Sun, damaging ordinary matter. A Q-ball is a theoretically particle whose existence is currently being attempted to be proven at CERN. In the film, the explosion of a bomb is meant to destroy the Q-ball into its constituent particles, and their natural decay will allow the Sun to return to its previous state.
- Kaneda was originally planned to be American, but Danny Boyle was persuaded to change his nationality because space travel has long become international. Therefore, they cast Hiroyuki Sanada, an actor of Japanese origin, in the role of Kaneda.
- Cillian Murphy received physics consultations from British physicist Brian Cox. The actor visited CERN on the border of Switzerland and France, observing the behavior of scientists and even beginning to mimic some of Cox's gestures. He also rewatched Henri-Georges Clouzot's (1907-1977) drama "The Wages of Fear" (1952) to better understand the suspense Boyle was trying to create. Murphy subsequently stated that he had previously been agnostic, but working on this film made him an atheist.
- The cast members underwent special training in a space flight program and learned scuba diving. Danny Boyle made everyone rewatch certain films, including Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff" (1983) and Al Reinert's (1947-2018) "For All Mankind" (1989). Boyle also arranged a tour of a nuclear submarine for them, so the actors could better understand what life in confinement is like, and gave them the opportunity to experience zero gravity on an aircraft performing aerobatic maneuvers.
- Writing the screenplay took Danny Boyle and Alex Garland over a year, followed by another year spent on pre-production; after that, filming began, lasting four months, and then another year was spent on editing and visual effects.
- The film used 750 special effects. Usually, several teams of specialists are hired to create special effects, but here, all the effects were created by one team because it was simpler for Danny Boyle. This is why the post-production process took so long.
- Applying makeup to Mark Strong took 5 hours.
- The models for the burnt corpses in the film were the remains of victims of the eruption of Vesuvius found in Pompeii.
- During issues with the airlock, a mannequin very similar to the actress Michelle Yeoh was used in place of her body.
- For the scene where Chris Evans's character repairs the 'Icarus 2,' the actor climbed into icy water before each take, causing his breath to steam. He genuinely chattered his teeth from the cold.
- Initially, the script called for an atomic bomb of the same size, but composed of compressed dark matter, with the mass of the Moon. However, the film's scientific consultant pointed out the problems with using a bomb of that mass, so in the film it has the mass of Manhattan.
- For some time, the actors involved in the project had to live together to create the impression for the audience that they knew each other well, as required by the script.
- After auditions, director Danny Boyle was so impressed with Michelle Yeoh's performance that he allowed her to choose any character she wanted to play. He was even willing to make the necessary changes to the script if she chose a male character.
- Danny Boyle was so exhausted working on the science fiction project that he vowed never to shoot science fiction again.
- Kaneda was originally planned to be American, but Danny Boyle was persuaded to change his nationality, as space flights have long become international.
- It took Danny Boyle and Alex Garland over a year to write the script.
- The film used 750 special effects. Usually, several teams of specialists are hired to create special effects, but here, all the effects were created by one team because it was easier for Danny Boyle. Because of this, the post-production process took longer.
- During issues with the gate, a mannequin was used instead of Michelle Yeoh's body double.
- Cillian Murphy received physics consultations from British physicist Brian Cox. The actor visited CERN on the border of Switzerland and France, where he observed scientists and even began to copy some of Cox's gestures. He also rewatched Henri-Georges Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear" to better understand the tension that Boyle was trying to create.
- The cast underwent special training in a space flight program and learned scuba diving. Danny Boyle made everyone rewatch certain films, including Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff" and Al Reinert's "For All Mankind." Boyle also arranged a tour of a nuclear submarine for them so the actors could better understand what life is like in cramped quarters, and gave them the opportunity to experience weightlessness on an aircraft performing aerobatic maneuvers.
- For the scene where Chris Evans' character repairs the "Icarus 2," the actor climbed into icy water before each take, causing his breath to visibly steam. He genuinely chattered his teeth from the cold.
- After the screen tests, director Danny Boyle was so impressed by Michelle Yeoh's performance that he allowed her to choose any character she wanted to play. He was even willing to make the necessary changes to the script if she had chosen a male character.
- Danny Boyle became so exhausted working on the sci-fi project that he swore he would never direct science fiction again.
- Initially, Kaneda was planned to be American, but Danny Boyle was convinced to change his nationality since space flight had long since become an international endeavor.
- Cillian Murphy received physics consultations from British physicist Brian Cox. The actor visited CERN on the border of Switzerland and France, where he observed scientists and even began to mimic some of Cox's gestures. He also re-watched Henri-Georges Clouzot's drama 'The Wages of Fear' to better understand the tension Boyle was trying to create.
- The cast underwent special training in the space flight program and learned how to scuba dive. Danny Boyle made everyone re-watch several films, including Philip Kaufman's 'The Right Stuff' and Al Reinert's 'For All Mankind'. Boyle also arranged a tour of a nuclear submarine so the actors could better understand what it is like to live in cramped quarters, and gave them the opportunity to experience weightlessness in a plane performing aerobatic maneuvers.
- Writing the screenplay took Danny Boyle and Alex Garland more than a year.
- The film uses 750 special effects. Typically, several teams of specialists are hired to create special effects, but here all the effects were created by a single team because it was easier for Danny Boyle. As a result, the post-production process took more time.
- Applying makeup to Marc Strong took 5 hours.
- To film the scene in which Chris Evans' character repairs the Icarus 2, the actor stepped into ice water before every take, which caused steam to come from his mouth. His teeth were actually chattering from the cold.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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