Saturn 3

Saturn 3 (1980)

Some thing is watching... waiting... and wanting on...

In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam and the scientist Alex, who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Captain Benson arrives Saturn 3 with Hector, incapable to controlling his emotions he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopath robot.

Date of release
1980-02-15
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (236)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Science Fiction, Thriller
Director
Stanley Donen

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $9M
  • Budget: $10M
  • Earned 0.9× its budget
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 3

Saturn 3 is a 1980 British science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Donen, starring Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel. The screenplay was written by Martin Amis, from a story by John Barry. Though a British production, made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment and shot at Shepperton Studios, the film has an American cast and director.

Development

The project was based on an idea by John Barry, one of the leading production designers of the 1970s, whose credits included A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars and Superman. He pitched it to Stanley Donen when they were making Lucky Lady together and Donen suggested he produce while Barry direct (Donen had no experience in science fiction prior to this).

The script was written by novelist Martin Amis, who did it for a fee of £30,000. According to Amis' biographer, the original script "is at once heroic and pitiable, his various attempts at wit, rhetorical bravado, even elegance, being shoe-horned into a directorial enterprise as boorish as The Vikings."

Donen was making the b-movie spoof Movie Movie for Lew Grade and gave Grade a copy of the script to read. Grade read it while on a plane with Farrah Fawcett. He gave the script to Fawcett who was interested, and Grade agreed to make the movie when the plane landed. Donen later said: "The script wasn't thoroughly realized at the point we signed Farrah Fawcett. We had a starting date when Lord Grade got off that airplane but no script."

Donen later said: "I was rather surprised she said yes in the first place because in the early scripts hers wasn't that big a part."

Fawcett later said the script was originally called The Helper. "It was a very interesting story about how a robot took on the mind of the guy who created him," she said. "So, when the Harvey Keitel character would look at me, the robot he created would look, too. It was a very interesting script, so creative."

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