Mars Attacks! is certainly one of director Tim Burton’s most bizarre movies, which is really saying something. Let’s revisit the quirky sci-fi film with these 10 behind-the-scenes facts!
10The film gave Independence Day its title and plot
Humorously, Mars Attacks! is indirectly responsible for Independence Day, even though the latter film came out first. As the story goes, when screenwriters Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich were working on their then-untitled alien invasion movie, they became aware of Mars Attacks! Immediately, this brought the writers great concern, as they worried viewers would take their movie less seriously if a parody film came out first. Their plan at that point became to beat Burton to the big screen with their “serious” invasion movie.
Knowing Mars Attacks! was due to come out later in the year, Emmerich had the idea to set the movie in the summer. Thinking the 4th of July weekend would be a good time to shoot for, the writers agreed upon calling the film Independence Day, coming up with the right story for it later. This would give the story not only its title, but a bulk of its premise by setting its events around the American holiday.
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