Ridley Scott already knew about water on Mars months ago

NASA's yesterday's announcement that flowing water had been discovered on Mars couldn't surprise 'The Martian' director Ridley Scott as he claims that he knew about this discovery months ago.

With this, people have started speculating that NASA waited to tell the world about the discovery so that the two would collide and drum up more publicity for each other, News.com.au reported.

Laurie Cantillo, NASA spokeswoman, defended, saying that the timing was dictated by the publication of the Nature Geoscience article.

On the other hand, the 77-year-old English director claimed that he knew about NASA's big news two months before it was announced and was shown photographs obtained by the space agency, but he was unable to use the information to change a key plot point of his new movie.

In the film, Matt Damon plays an astronaut left to fend for himself on Mars, and his character uses special equipment to manufacture his own water.

The Movie will hit the theatres on October 2.