10 Things You Didn’t Know About Mars Attacks!

If you’re anything like me, you were going to the movie theaters like crazy way back in the mid-90’s and you may or may not have even seen Mars Attacks! in theaters three times. I know it’s a stretch to think that there were like-minded individuals to myself out there paying good money to see a movie such as this but anything is possible.

When I think back about the list of films that Tim Burton has made, Mars Attacks! always seems to slip my mind. At first look, it’s different to most of the things he was making throughout the 80’s and into the 90’s, but that isn’t necessarily the case. While it doesn’t have the dark and nightmarish tone of some of his earlier flicks, it’s clear that it’s strange as shit. There is also an immense amount of talent in the film and each scene feels designed for one actor or another to steal a scene.

1. Tim Burton got the idea for the film after stumbling across some trading cards from the 1960’s titled Mars Attacks. The Topps cards came with lots of controversy as the Cold War had caused fear amongst many. The line was canceled after only 6 months.

2. The writers weren’t exactly sure how the Martians should sound so they had a placeholder in the script with “ack, ack, ack, ack” written in. When nothing better came up, that was the dialogue that was used in the film. Tim Burton allegedly co-wrote the script but asked not to get any credit for it.

3. Tim Burton had visited Tom Jones’ Las Vegas show and personally asked him to be in the film. His backup singers from his show were used in the film, as well.

4. Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito had previously worked with Tim Burton as villains in his Batman films. Jack had enjoyed working with Burton in Batman (1989) so much that he didn’t even read the script for Mars Attacks!.

5. Tim Burton was told that he couldn’t kill off Jack Nicholson’s character so he cast him as two separate characters and then killed them both.

6. The skeletons of the people who are zapped by the Martians are red and green partially because the film was released around Christmas.

7. Tim Burton originally wanted to use stop-motion animation for all of the Martians. He had to change his plans because of time and budget constraints.

8. The look of the Martians was an amalgamation of all the classic aliens from cinema and print that Tim Burton grew up loving. Even though he wasn’t able to use stop-motion in the film, he wanted the way they moved to look like it was created through stop-motion.

9. The ‘Martian woman’ character was played by another actress from a past Burton film, 1994’s Ed Wood, named Lisa Marie. She had to spend 7 hours in makeup to get the look for the film. The dress had no buttons or zippers and the actress had to be sewn into it everyday. The look was inspired by a trading card released two years before the film. It was also something of a mashup between Marilyn Monroe and the Bride of Frankenstein.

10. Mars Attacks! marked Michael J. Fox’s final onscreen theatrical release.