The Inspiration
The Story
As Many Stars as in the Heavens
Little Green Men and Other Special Effects
Production Design
Costume Design, Hair and Make-Up
The Martian Girl
On Location: Washington, D.C.
On Location: The Heartland
On Location: Viva Las Vegas!
On Location: Martian Desert Landing
Life On Mars

Playing the Earthlings under intergalactic siege is a stellar cast of dazzlers unlike any assembled on the silver screen before:


. . . JACK NICHOLSON as President of the United States James Dale, worried about the best suit to wear to greet the Martians; GLENN CLOSE as appearance-obsessive First Lady Marsha, not about to have those things in her house; and NATALIE PORTMAN as First Daughter Taffy, bored with the whole hullabaloo -- a Family that is one of the First to come unglued!

. . . at the worthlessness of the President's closest cadre of advisors: ROD STEIGER as "blow-'em-back-to-Mars" General Decker, who never met a war he didn't like; PAUL WINFIELD as "they-come-in-peace" General Casey, who wants to drive the welcome wagon; MARTIN SHORT as the Oval Office's hormonally driven spin doctor, Press Secretary Jerry Ross; and PIERCE BROSNAN as Professor Donald Kessler, who wants to know what makes those big-brained fiends tick!

. . . at the denizens of glittery, glitzy Las Vegas: JACK NICHOLSON (yes! again!) as real-estate slickster Art Land; ANNETTE BENING as his chakra-cleansing, 12-stepping, harmonically converging wife, Barbara; DANNY DeVITO as a foul-tempered and fouler-mouthed low-roller; JIM BROWN as ex-pro boxer Byron Williams, now a casino greeter; and legendary, ladies-love-him showman TOM JONES as legendary, ladies-love-him showman Tom Jones!

. . . as a young couple -- SARAH JESSICA PARKER as hip go-getter fashion-newsgal Nathalie Lake and MICHAEL J. FOX as her straighter-laced boyfriend and newshound rival Jason Stone -- race to scoop the story of the millennium without mussing their hair!

. . . in the Heartland as LUKAS HAAS as slacker stoner Richie Norris and SYLVIA SIDNEY as his hazy-headed grandma make up a cross-generational vigilante team to battle the Martian madness!

. . . as, back in the Capitol City, PAM GRIER takes no guff -- from her sons or from any E.T., either -- as Louise Williams, and LISA MARIE woos her way into the White House as the alluring, irresistible Martian Girl!

This Martian-mayhem, madcap spoof is produced by Tim Burton and LARRY FRANCO ("Jumanji") from a screenplay by JONATHAN GEMS inspired by the Topps trading-card series depicting the planetwide pandemonium that ensues when little green men from the Angry Red Planet invade.

To transform those cards into a celebrity-studded, effects-loaded, full-fraught motion picture, Burton assembled a superlative crew of behind-the-camera talent that swept across the nation from Los Angeles through Arizona, Las Vegas and Kansas to Washington, D.C. to capture the coast-to-coast commotion of America under alien attack.

The director of photography is PETER SUSCHITZKY, who shot the extra-planetary realms of "The Empire Strikes Back" and the provocative drama of David Cronenberg's "Crash." The editor is double Academy Award-nominee CHRIS LEBENZON, who cut "Crimson Tide" and worked with Burton on "Ed Wood" and "Batman Returns." WYNN THOMAS, who designed the epic "Malcolm X" and the buoyant "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar," is the production designer. The costumes are designed by COLLEEN ATWOOD, a Burton collaborator from "Ed Wood" and "Edward Scissorhands" and an Oscar nominee for "Little Women." Grammy Award-winning composer DANNY ELFMAN teams with Burton for the seventh time to create the score.

Also featuring a horde of swollen-brained, bug-eyed Martians, not to mention a fleet of saucers sailing through space before unleashing their attack on Earth, "Mars Attacks!" called upon special effects from two of the industry's leading production studios. Industrial Light & Magic ("Twister," "Jurassic Park") and Warner Digital Studios ("Eraser," "Batman & Robin") contributed their digital wizardry to bring the Martian invaders and the calamity they wreak to full cinematic life.