Carl Sagan once said, imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere.

I’m Chris Campbell, and I watch movies.

Robert Zemeckis’ film Contact was released in 1997.

Films inspired a generation of women to go into careers in science, technology, education, and math.

Originally, Carl Sagan came up with the idea in 1979, and his friend and producer, Linda Obst, got a development deal.

So Sagan and Andrewian wrote a 100-page treatment for the film that outlined the story.

They brought some screenwriters in, but the development stalled, and Carl Sagan wrote a novel that was published in 1985.

Carl Sagan got a $2 million advance for the novel.

That was the largest advance for a novel before being written at the time.

Jodie Foster’s character of Ellie Arroway was based on astronomer Jill Tarter, and Dr.

Tarter was one of the founders of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI.

Foster spent time with Tarter when she was preparing for a role.

In 1989, Linda Obst became an executive at Warner Bros.

She got development started, and she hired some more writers.

Robert Zemeckis was offered the film, but he turned it down to work on a film about Harry Houdini along with other films.

George Miller was hired to direct the film in 1993.

George Miller, of Mad Max fame.

He started pre-production, and he’s the one who cast Jodie Foster, and he was also considering Ralph Fiennes as the male lead and was considering Linda Hunt as the president.

Pre-production took a lot longer than expected, and Warner Bros.

fired George Miller, and they hired Robert Zemeckis.

And he’d made the films Death Becomes Her and Forrest Gump in the meantime.

They gave him complete creative control and final cut.

And Robert Zemeckis is the one who cast Matthew McConaughey.

The other thing with Robert Zemeckis that was kind of interesting is because of his special effects experience, he was able to bring that to bear completely on the film.

And there’s some incredible virtuoso shots in the film, including the opening shot, which was the longest computer animated sequence ever in a film up to that time.

Contact was released in 1997, and it’s fascinating how the film holds up.

I watched it again recently, and it’s quite an entertaining film.

It deals with issues of religion and faith and science and really dives into the idea of what would happen if we had contact with an alien civilization.

Some location footage representing Japan was shot at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland.

The only Academy Award nomination that Contact received was one for Sound, and it didn’t even win.

But Contact has held up very well, and it’s well-loved by many people.

Did you enjoy Contact?

Let me know.

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I’m Chris Campbell, and I watch movies.