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The 2018 Netflix movie The Titan does not credit any previous works as its source material. However, the movie's Wikipedia page lists Man Plus, a 1976 novel by Frederik Pohl as a "similar uncredited novel". The premises sound remarkably similar, though I have not read Man Plus. Is The Titan based on this or any other work? I'm mostly interested in finding out whether the writers/director/producers have cited other works as inspiration during interviews or elsewhere.

I've done some more digging and it seems there are at least a few who feel Man Plus and The Titan are very similar, though I haven't been able to find any citations to these claims. One such example is this blog.

Also, I just discovered this question may be a duplicate. At the very least, it is similar to this question.

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  • All the sources I can find show Arash Amel as being the writer of an original idea script. No interviews indicate anything about inspiration.
    – JohnP
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 16:04
  • @JohnP same here. Grace of Monaco by Amel was kind of an inspiration.
    – Shreedhar
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 16:06
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    I have read the novel, and it was considerably better than the movie. As stated earlier genetic manipulation was substituted for robotic/bionic enhancement. The story line of the movie was VERY close to the novel. Quite a few reviews just don't get the point of the movie, loss of humanity/what does being human require/human relationships etc. The actual colonisation of the moon Titan was not the focus. Also the novel had similar world wide wars/stability issues, although the novel was focused on the continuation of the cold war between the USA and USSR.
    – Roger
    Commented Apr 3, 2018 at 2:31
  • I read a book as a kid that was exactly this story including Titan being the destination. I just can’t remember the name of it.
    – George
    Commented May 20, 2018 at 16:15

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I haven't read Man Plus either but I found something else. According to IndieWire (here),

Max Hurwitz’s (Screenplay of the movie) script, based on the writer Arash Amel's idea with a slight change/suggestion: Instead of changing an alien place to better accommodate people, why not change people to better accommodate an alien place?

Also mentioned here:

Lennart Ruff directs the project, based on a original story by Amel (Grace Of Monaco).

So, apparently the book/novel on which the movie is based hasn't been mentioned anywhere, but it sure is based on a story by Amel.

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    Grace of Monaco was written by Arash Amel, but it's a biopic about Grace Kelly. I don't know much about her, but I dont think Grace Kelly was ever part of genetic experiements that would enable her to travel to Titan. I think indiewire meant to say that this is an original idea by Arash Amel, writer of Grace of Monaco.
    – Sethen
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 16:24
  • @Sethen I searched around a bit more and, yeah, you're right. It was based on Amel's idea and not his book. Making the changes rightaway. Sorry! :p
    – Shreedhar
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 16:29

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