- Title: USA: Matt Damon on meaning of "Elysium"
- Date: 9th August 2013
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT DAMON, "ELYSIUM" STAR, SAYING: "If you look at the difference between the bottom billion people on planet Earth and the top 10 million, the contrast is as stark as living on a space station and living in a third world urban center. You don't have to go far, particularly in other countries, you don't have to go far to see poverty like that."
- Embargoed: 24th August 2013 13:00
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- Location: Usa
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- Country: USA
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- Reuters ID: LVABYQ97Q751U64TYZL27DAKQB7D
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- Story Text: Leading man Matt Damon wants summer filmgoers to be completely entertained by the action-packed, sci-fi thriller "Elysium."
But if the audience could also ponder the question of what to do about world poverty and inequality, well, that would be a bonus.
The film portrays two distinct worlds in the year 2154 - a diseased and overpopulated Earth, and Elysium, a space station where the elite live far from the seething masses in perfectly manicured mansions.
Damon plays Max, a blue-collar worker with a criminal past struggling with robot bureaucrats and policemen in his shantytown. He has given up on his childhood hopes of reaching Elysium when he suffers an industrial accident and needs to reach the First World's medicine to survive.
If the premise sounds far-fetched, Damon says not so much.
"If you look at the difference between the bottom billion people on planet Earth and the top 10 million, the contrast is as stark as living on a space station and living in a third world urban center," the actor said. "You don't have to go far, particularly in other countries, you don't have to go far to see poverty like that."
Max reluctantly makes a deal with an underworld lord to take him to Elysium, but in exchange he must undertake a mission that will benefit not just him, but millions back on Earth.
"Elysium" is not the typical light summer fare served up in big-budget Hollywood productions. And director Neill Blomkamp, the South African who made waves with his first feature, "District 9," is no typical director.
After all, he employed the alien invasion genre as a vehicle to explain xenophobia and segregation in South Africa, a novel concept that garnered four Oscar nominations in 2010, including best picture.
But Damon hopes that above all, audience goers will be entertained by the film.
"Like Neill said the first time I met him, he said 'If I made that movie about Zimbabwe and refugees and Joburg, four people would've gone to see it. But if I make it a science fiction movie and make it about aliens, it's a whole different thing and people can be really entertained by it,'" Damon said. "They can talk about it around the water cooler if they want to, what the deeper meaning of the movie is or what the deeper message of the movie is. But, the first order of business is, particularly a summer movie like this is to make sure people are completely entertained by it."
"Elysium" releases in U.S. theaters on August 9. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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