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andy weir dreamed up the story in a series of well researched blog posts which turned into an e-booksold 35,000 copies. the book deal and movie deal closed in the same weed. the film is projected to pull in $45 million this weekend. all of this in context of the actual market breakthrough this week when nasa unveiled liquid water on the planet. breakthrough.mars when it comes to bringing science fiction closer to reality, nasa is far off. it plans to send humans to mars by 2030. when you think of general electric, you think about jet engines and the industry. ge wants to shift the image and rebrand to what it calls a digital industrial. what is your news? >> i got a job. i will be a programmer at ge. >> i got a job. >> i love that. >> i will be writing code that helps machines communicate. emily: joining me is the newly named chief marketing officer for ge, linda boff, who played a key role in pushing the company into digital marketing over the last 12 years. linda, thank you for joining us. we noticed your campaign and commercials and laughed out loud. people rarely see commercials

andy weir wrote "the martian" as a hobby. convinced he'd never make it as a writer. as he tells erica, the universe had other plans. >> reporter: for the man who created "the martian,"s film success is the latest ind ri%s of events he never expected. >> i'm like, am i in a coma and i'm just dreaming all this? >> reporter: andy weir's tale of an astronaut stranded on mars scored t geek a four-day vip visit at nnasa. >> they let me go into the mission control center. i'd sit a the a station and remote control a camera mounted to the outside of iss. >> reporter: and has hern earned him some praise from well-known fans. >> commander chris hatfield, former iss commander. he liked it a lot. buzz al dren and i have hung out many times. he's taken a liking to me. >> reporter: yet, the biggest thrill for this commuter programmer came long before buzz or hollywood called. >> probably the biggest kind of eling of victory i had was just getting the book published initially. all my life i've wanted be a writer. >> you say you always wanted to be a writer, but you weren't ireally

>> andy weir's tale of an astronaut stranded on mars scored this self-described space geek a four-day, vip visit to nasa. >> i went into the mission control center. control, camera mounted to the outside of iss. >> reporter: and has earned him praise from fans. >> former iss commander. i'm feeling very still >> he liked it. buzzal buzz aldrin, he's taken a liking to me. >> probably the biggest feeling of victory i had was getting the ed ed initially. writer. >> reporter: you weren't sure you had the right stuff? >> all evidence indicated i didn't. i had given up on being a professional writer because i failed too many times. i just said, this is going to be my hobby. >> reporter: weir began penning >> when i had errors, it was like having 3,000 fast checkers. >> reporter: he was asked for a e-version and kindle download. he posted it for 99 cents. >> i pulled down a pool cool 30 cents per book in royalties. >> reporter: the story that had taken three years to write suddenly changed weir's life in a matter of days. >> when they were negotiating the book deal, then fox came for the movi

and i just came back from california where i sat down with andy weir who wrote the book "the martian" that the book is based on. he's a very funny guy. we talked to him a little bit about why he has a fascination with mars, what the response has been and it turns out, by the way, given up on being a writer, computer programmer, never going to work out and then he started writing the book and a fascinating story about how it within four days of that book deal he got the movie deal. >> got to see that movie. >> it's great. >> the book is fantastic, highly recommend the book and the movie is really -- stays pretty closely to the story. >> wow, can't wait. >> dylan is going to be in south carolina for all the flooding. >> she will be covering that for us. she's there and this morning she's in north carolina. >> kill devil hills. >> and now driving with her crew because this could be historically dangerous flooding. >> everybody needs to be careful of that. >> speaking of "the martian" one of its stars emmy winner jeff daniels will be joining kathie lee and hoda. >> after your local news a

we showed you the interview with andy weir and scott budman takes a look at the rest of the connections. >> reporter: "the martian" is hitting big screens with a ton of effects and situations that might some day happen. >> let's do the math. >> reporter: but this scene shows something that does exist. video conferencing. and it's made in silicon valley. >> silicon valley is saying science fiction is here today. >> reporter: movie makers approached san jose based cisco systems about using its video technology. this is one of the screens you'll see in the movie. this is what it looks like to use the product on earth. >> as part of the team that makes these products, it really makes all of us feel great to see them in these kind of situations in a movie. >> reporter: between the movie and discovery of liquid water, mars is having its hollywood moment. and a lot of that credit goes to nasa ames also in silicon valley. >> i'm passionate about studying whether or not life exists anywhere else in the solar system or in the universe. this is like a really fundamental question for all people. >>

it's based on the book of the same name by andy weir. i have to tell you, huge congratulations. a good price for this because this is one great story. i left that theater so inspired about not just this mcgiver ingenuity and the chinese part. your thoughts about the inspiration of people pulling together. i thought it was great. >> i just honestly think that is what people are like. we have this basic instinct to help each other out. you see on the news when people aren't like that but it is so common for us to go out of our way to help each other out that it's not even news worthy. >> are we going to live through something like this? will we get to 23mars and have drama about getting a guy or person home who gets stranded? how did you come up with something that never happened before? it seems so reasonable, every aspect seems i can see this happening. yeah, i can see that happening. how did you get the authenticity right? the science right? >> i have been a space dork my whole life. i grew up watching documentaries about space flight and space program. i did a ton of research

chance a lot of people will be going, away this weekend and is there buzz this weekend about the andy weirlling novel. >> the martial starring matt damon here is a prehe view. >> i guarantee you, that at some point, everything will go south on you. >> really. >> yes. >> during a manned mission to mars astronaut mark whitely does not make it to the ship. >> seal it up, seal it up. >> he is dead. >> let's go. >> director ridley scott, the master mind, behind, the opening sand storm. >> we shot that on a sound stage in budapest on the biggest sound stage in the world and he got these giant fans that are just massive fans, and he turned the fans on and you get this particles in the air, and i mean you are really in, you are getting pushed over by the wind. >> like a hurricane. >> yeah. >> all will this tough blowing against you and you are in these space suits. it was really fun. >> not so fun on earth, all tar cast play ace very concerned, brilliant group of men a and women at nasa, for a while, they and remaining astronauts in space are the the only ones aware of his presumed death but hold

there is buzz about the philadelphia caption of the andy weir best selling adoption called the martian starring matt damon. our ukee washington has the the preview. >> i guarantee you, that at some point, everything is going to go south on you. >> ready. >> during a manned mission to mars mark watley does not make it back to the ship. >> mark is dead. >> director ridley scotties master mind behind the film opening sand storm. >> we shot that on a sound stage we were in budapest on the biggest sound stage in the world and he got these giant ritter fans that are like, they are just massive fans and you turn the fans on and you get all this particles in the air and i mean you are really in, you are like getting push over by the wind. >> almost like a hurricane. >> and all this stuff blowing against you. you are in these space suits. it was really fun. >> reporter: in the so much fun on earth all-star cast play ace very concerned, brilliant group of men and women at nasa. and for a while they and remaining a astronauts in space are only ones aware of the presumed death but. >> this will co