Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger (1969)

You will meet yourself face-to-face when Earth meets its duplicate in outer space!

A planet is discovered in the same orbit as Earth's but is located on the exact opposite side of the sun, making it not visible from Earth. The European Space Exploration Council decide to send American astronaut Glenn Ross and British scientist John Kane via spaceship to explore the other planet.

Date of release
1969-08-27
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (138)
Runtime
1h 41m
Genres
Science Fiction
Director
Robert Parrish

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Portugal, Hertfordshire, and Pinewood Studios

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Patrick Wymark, Lynn Loring, Loni von Friedl and Herbert Lom. It was written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and Donald James, and produced by the Andersons for their company Century 21. Set in the year 2069, the film concerns a joint European-NASA mission to investigate a newly discovered planet which lies directly opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun.

Production

In 1967, producer Jay Kanter arrived in London to set up a European office for Universal Pictures. Kanter was open to funding promising film ideas, so Lew Grade, the Andersons' employer and financial backer, set up a meeting for Gerry Anderson to pitch a story about a hypothetical "mirror" Earth.

The earliest version of the script was written by Tony Williamson. At one point it ran to 194 pages, enough for a three-hour film. The Andersons had conceived the story as a one-hour drama for Associated Television, but Sylvia thought the premise "too good for a television play" and suggested making it as a feature film instead. John Read, the Andersons' business partner, proposed the title "Doppelgänger".

Kanter was dissatisfied with the Williamson script, so the Andersons' began to re-write it themselves and brought in Donald James as a co-writer to improve the characterisation. The revisions included substantial changes to the parts set on the mirror Earth, essentially causing the characters of Ross and Kane to switch roles. In the original script, Ross was blinded in the Dove crash, while Kane survived but was declared insane.

Despite James's efforts, Kanter remained unenthusiastic. However, he agreed to finance the film provided that the Andersons chose a "bankable" director who met with his approval. Gerry's first choice was David Lane, who had directed Century 21's puppet films Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), but Kanter wanted an experienced mainstream director.

Leading the cast was American actor Roy Thinnes as Colonel Glenn Ross of NASA. Thinnes was cast on the basis of his starring role in The Invaders and his resemblance to Paul Newman. In the Andersons' script, Ross's first name was Stewart and he was the first person on Mars.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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