In 1998, Andrew Niccol made his first film: “Welcome to Gattaca”. Carried by Ethan Hawke and Uma thurman, this work of science fiction quickly becomes a classic. Do you know where the title of the film comes from?
Welcome to Gattaca : a sci-fi classic from the 90s
In the 1990s, Andrew Niccol was at the very beginning of his career. At the time, the screenwriter and director distinguished himself by writing the screenplay for The Truman Showwhich he sold to Paramount in 1993. Thanks to this success, he started writing a new project: Welcome to Gattaca. He offered it to Columbia Pictures, which agreed to produce his film in 1997. It was the start of the rise for Andrew Niccol.
He directs himself Welcome to Gattaca (his first production) which becomes a great classic of modern science fiction. Thereafter, he will return several times behind the camera, in particular to direct Lord of the War, Time Out or Wandering souls.
Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman or Jude Law are chosen to wear Welcome to Gattaca. The film received rave reviews and was named at the Oscars in the Best Scenery category. On the box office side, the work brings in more than $12 million in revenue. The story tells of a perfect world: Gattaca. There, the laws of nature no longer operate. Newborn babies are genetically modified to be perfect children. Vincent (Ethan Hawke), an illegitimate child, dreams of going to space. He teams up with Jerome (Jude Law), a perfect child whose life was destroyed by an accident, to thwart the laws of Gattaca.
Where does the title of the film come from?
The title of the film does not come from anywhere. In effect, the term Gattaca is a reference to the human genome. More particularly to the initials of the bases of the DNA: that is to say ACTG. Indeed, the four nucleotides of DNA: Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine and Thymine compose the title Gattaca. A nucleotide is an organic molecule composed of three substances: a purine (adenine or guanine) or pyrimique (cytosine, thymine or uracil) base, a sugar (ribose or deoxyribose) and a phosphoric acid. The sequence of nucleotides determines the sequence of bases in the nucleic acid, which constitutes the genetic message.
On the other hand, the GATTACA sequence is a true DNA sequence that appears multiple times in the human genome. Finally, in the opening and closing credits of the film, the letters G, A, T and C appear before the others. A decision by Andrew Niccol and his team to make another reference to the 4 nucleotides that make up DNA.
