Ridley Scott: 'I knew there was water on Mars months ago'

Director of The Martian was shown photographs of water flows by Nasa 'about two months ago', but by then it was too late to include the information in the plot of the Matt Damon film

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On one level, The Martian may be functioning as a giant advertisement for Nasa, but the close collaboration between the space agency and Ridley Scott's film-making team has resulted in the director remaining blasi(C) about the dramatic announcement of evidence of flowing water on Mars. "I knew that months ago," he said in response to the news.