Main Cast: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Lou Diamond Phillips, Peter Facinelli
Release Year: 2000
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
In the early years of the 22nd century, a medical rescue team is traveling the netherworlds of deep space, waiting to answer emergency calls aboard what amounts to an interstellar ambulance. Captain Marley (Robert Forster), pilot Vanzant (James Spader), medical officer Evers (Angela Bassett), medical technician Penalosa (Lou Diamond Phillips), paramedic Lund (Robin Tunney), and computer technician Sotomejor (Wilson Cruz) pick up a distress signal from a group of workers involved in a mining operation on a comet. But as they move in for a rescue, they discover that this isn't the mission of mercy they were expecting. They pick up Larson (Peter Facinelli), a mysterious and menacing man with a strange alien artifact, who draws the ship into the orbit of a huge star that is due to explode into a supernova at any time. Supernova had a production history that can be charitably described as "troubled." Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright was replaced by Walter Hill shortly before filming began. Actor Vincent D'Onofrio left the project shortly after Wright, replaced by Cruz. Hill then left the project in post-production and requested that his name be removed from the film. Francis Ford Coppola was hired to supervise a final re-cut, nearly a year after the completion of photography. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Robin Tunney - Danika Lund; Wilson Cruz - Benj Sotomejor
Credit
Bruce Hill - Art Director, Mary Jo Slater - Casting, Bob Ringwood - Costume Designer, Jeffrey Wetzel - First Assistant Director, Thomas Lee - Director, Michael Schweitzer - Editor, Melissa Kent - Editor, Ralph S. Singleton - Executive Producer, Ralph Singleton - Executive Producer, David C. Williams - Composer (Music Score), Patrick Tatopoulos - Makeup Special Effects, Marek Dobrowoiski - Production Designer, Lloyd Ahern, Jr. - Cinematographer, Ash R. Shah - Producer, Jamie Dixon - Producer, Daniel Chuba - Producer, Nancy Nye - Set Designer, Mark Stetson - Special Effects, Jim Webb - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Kirchberger - Sound Editor, Jay Wilkinson - Sound Editor, Mark Stoeckinger - Sound Editor, William Malone - Screen Story, David C. Wilson - Screenwriter, Mark Stetson - Visual Effects Supervisor
Though Hill was chiefly responsible for principal photography, Jack Sholder directed some re-shoots, and Francis Ford Coppola was called in to supervise re-editing to try to produce a releasable film.[citation needed] It was reported that the studio, extremely unhappy with Walter Hill's completed product, called in Francis Ford Coppola to "re-edit" the film.[citation needed] "Thomas Lee" was chosen as a directorial pseudonym for release, as the name Alan Smithee had become too well-known as a badge of a film being disowned by its makers.
Originally developed in 1988 by director William Malone as "Dead Star" with paintings by H.R. Giger and a plot that had been called "Hellraiser in outer space."
Supernova chronicles the search and rescue patrol of a medical ship in deep space in the early 22nd century and its six-member crew which includes a captain and pilot (Robert Forster), a co-pilot (James Spader), a medical officer (Angela Bassett), a medical technician (Lou Diamond Phillips), a search and rescue paramedic (Robin Tunney), and a computer technician (Wilson Cruz). When their vessel, the Nightingale 229, answers an emergency distress signal from a comet mining operation in a distant galaxy, the crew soon finds itself in danger from the mysterious young man (Peter Facinelli) they rescue, the alien artifact he's smuggled aboard, and the gravitational pull of a giant star about to go supernova.
Supernova was widely panned by most reviewers. Rotten Tomatoes, for example, gives it a mere 10% rating.[1] A New York Times reviewer called it "light on originality and low on suspense though high on design and special effects."[2]
