Saturn 3 - Development

Development

John Barry conceived the project as a much more lavish vision of the future. The film's producers, Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment, intended the production to cash in on the sudden vogue for science fiction and horror following the success of Alien. Farrah Fawcett was also hoped to be a major draw for a teenage male audience and much of the film's promotion was based around the revealing space suits she was due to wear in the film. Donen played down the exploitation elements resulting in a film that the producers struggled to market.

Barry was set to make his directorial debut with the film, but he was replaced after shooting started, according to some reports due to a dispute with Kirk Douglas. Stanley Donen, who was already attached to the project as producer, replaced him. Reportedly, Donen was dissatisfied with Harvey Keitel's characteristic Brooklyn accent. Keitel's voice is dubbed over by British actor Roy Dotrice who, for this performance, adopted a mid-Atlantic accent.

Two scenes that had been filmed for the production were edited out, due to Lew Grade objecting to the subject matter. These were a dream sequence that involved both Adam and Alex killing Benson and a scene where Hector ripped apart Benson's dead body on a table in one of the colony's laboratories. Regardless of these cuts, the film was given an MPAA rating of R, for scenes of violence and brief nudity. In the UK, the film was given a more relaxed A certificate by the BBFC for it's theatrical release, though subsequent home video releases were given a 15 certificate.

ITC was also producing Raise the Titanic! at the same time. As the other film went over-schedule and over-budget, the production of Saturn 3 was cut back.

In screenwriter Martin Amis's novel Money the main character, John Self, is based in part on John Barry (Self's father is named Barry Self as well). The ageing film star "Lorne Guyland", obsessed by his own virility, is based on Douglas. Similarly, the project that John Self attempts to complete is as wracked with disaster as was the production of Saturn 3.

When the film was broadcast on NBC in mid-1984 certain scenes that had been edited from the original print had been restored: Adam offering to take Alex to Earth, Alex was voicing her concern to Adam about taking Hector outside of the complex, Adam taking Hector outside in the moonbuggy, Benson asking how Alex's eye was after her accident, Adam leaving Hector near the shuttle probe, Hector re-entering the colony and sabotaging the outer airlock mechanism to prevent Adam from coming back inside, an extended scene of Benson walking down a corridor, Adam trying to re-enter Saturn 3 and blowing the outer airlock door off with an explosive adhesive, an extended scene of Adam in the decontamination chamber, Alex voicing her worry that Hector might have killed Adam, Alex being dragged away by Benson and yelling at him, Adam embracing Alex and watching Hector drag away Benson's dead body, Adam holding a towel to his head after Benson had hit him with a pipe and claiming that "Hector is no humpty-dumpty", both Adam and Alex wondering how Hector managed to reassemble itself, and finally both Adam and Alex sharing a laugh over a humorous incident while hiding in the communications room. Additional music cues were also added to scenes involving the opening credits and Benson's death.