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  "In the Event of a Moon Disaster" (FilmNation)

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Author Topic:   "In the Event of a Moon Disaster" (FilmNation)
Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 08-23-2011 05:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Variety reports that FilmNation Entertainment has acquired the rights to the spec script, "In the Event of a Moon Disaster" by former Variety writer Mike Jones.
FilmNation principal Glen Basner confirmed the sale Monday and told Variety that the budget on the project will be north of $35 million, making "Moon" the largest Filmnation production to date. The company's planning to go out to directors shortly.

Story will focus on a revised version of the first moon mission, in which disaster hits the astronauts. In the actual Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent two hours on the lunar surface.

328KF
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posted 08-23-2011 10:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 328KF   Click Here to Email 328KF     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Story will focus on a revised version of the first moon mission, in which disaster hits the astronauts.
Really?

bruce
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From: Fort Mill, SC, USA
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posted 08-24-2011 06:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for bruce   Click Here to Email bruce     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That's just what we need right now; taking the last thing this country participated in with overwhelming optimism and joy and turn it into a disaster film. Perfect.

cspg
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From: Geneva, Switzerland
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posted 08-24-2011 07:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
LOL (no smilies for this!) at Bruce's post (maybe it wasn't meant to be funny, but it made me laugh!). Not the film.

stsmithva
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Posts: 1933
From: Fairfax, VA, USA
Registered: Feb 2007

posted 08-24-2011 08:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for stsmithva   Click Here to Email stsmithva     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, just getting the rights to a script sure doesn't mean it's going to actually be made. I won't guess at the ratio, but a lot of spec scripts just sit in files until the option runs out.

This Hollywood insider information is based on subscribing to "Entertainment Weekly" for several years in the 1990s.

garymilgrom
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From: Atlanta, GA
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posted 08-24-2011 08:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for garymilgrom   Click Here to Email garymilgrom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bruce look at the bright side - perhaps a disaster movie would remind the public how hard spaceflight is and how good NASA was at it.

Fra Mauro
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From: Bethpage, N.Y.
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posted 08-24-2011 08:50 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fra Mauro   Click Here to Email Fra Mauro     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I guess it would be an alternate history type of movie. This will either be excellent or a total flop.

328KF
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posted 08-24-2011 10:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for 328KF   Click Here to Email 328KF     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Why don't they just get around to actually making the movie based on First Man? At least that would be based in reality.

We don't need to inspire our kids with over-dramatized alternate history. The real events and the people involved should do that job just fine, even if a little artistic license is thrown in by Hollywood.

ilbasso
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From: Greensboro, NC USA
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posted 08-24-2011 12:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ilbasso   Click Here to Email ilbasso     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Fra Mauro:
I guess it would be an alternate history type of movie...

Great. They've re-booted Star Trek, Batman (twice), Spiderman...why not Apollo?

bwhite1976
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From: Belleville, IL
Registered: Jun 2011

posted 08-24-2011 12:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for bwhite1976   Click Here to Email bwhite1976     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by 328KF:
We don't need to inspire our kids with over-dramatized alternate history. The real events and the people involved should do that job just fine, even if a little artistic license is thrown in by Hollywood.
I agree. Why not use "First Man" or "Deke!" or "Countdown," or "Light this Candle" or... These books based on events and human experiences of adventure and bravery that actually happened. Why invent an alternate story?

The general public already knows pretty much nothing beyond Apollo 11 and 13, so a movie about Apollo 15 or Skylab for instance would be a new story for most.

On a side note wasn't the rights for "First Man" bought by Clint Eastwood a few years ago? Shows how long it an take to get these movies made...

Fra Mauro
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posted 08-24-2011 02:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fra Mauro   Click Here to Email Fra Mauro     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
While I would love to see movies about Skylab, or Armstrong or Apollo 15, by today's standards they would be boring — without random acts of violence or bathroom humor, many movie companies wouldn't touch such a "non-event."

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-24-2011 02:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This needn't be an either/or situation and in fact, the success of fact-based fiction films can lend to greater interest in non-fiction films (reference the film projects born out of the success of "Titanic," including Cameron's own "Ghosts of the Abyss").
quote:
Originally posted by bwhite1976:
On a side note wasn't the rights for "First Man" bought by Clint Eastwood a few years ago?
It was, but he let the rights expire and Universal Studios acquired them. The last update (in 2009) was that a screenwriter had been assigned to rework the earlier screenplay and Temple Hill Productions (of the "Twilight" franchise) was attached.

mikej
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From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 08-24-2011 05:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mikej   Click Here to Email mikej     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
rework the earlier screenplay and Temple Hill Productions (of the "Twilight" franchise)
Great! Now Neil Armstrong will be a vampire.

I can see it now: The reason there are no direct images of him on the surface is because of the mirror in the camera, and it was all a NASA cover-up...

star61
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From: Bristol UK
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posted 08-25-2011 02:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for star61   Click Here to Email star61     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"I have the farts, again. I got them again, Charlie... I haven't eaten this much citrus fruit in 20 years! And I'll tell you one thing... I ain't never eating any more."

Apollo 16 could supply the bathroom humour...

328KF
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posted 08-25-2011 05:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 328KF   Click Here to Email 328KF     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hey maybe they can work in that pen-in-the circuit breaker story where Aldrin shoves his Fisher AG-7 (product placement) through the panel just as the count reaches "0"! Talk about drama!

Delta7
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From: Bluffton IN USA
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posted 08-26-2011 10:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Delta7   Click Here to Email Delta7     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
APOLLO 16!

A new comedy/drama coming this fall! The mission is cut short due to a technical problem; geologists who selected the landing site for the promise of volcanic activity are embarrassed when there turns out to be none. Commander accidentally kicks chord ruining a $1 million experiment! A hot mike during discussion of flatulence! A lunar Grand Prix! A jumping salute to the flag! The media and public pay little attention! Starring Colin Farrell as John Young, Brian Cranston as Thomas "Ken" Mattingly III, Johnny Knoxville as Charlie Duke, and Timothy Olyphant as Capcom Tony England.

Rated PG-13 due to discussions of flatulence and adult language.

BBlatcher
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From: Savannah, GA, USA
Registered: Aug 2011

posted 08-26-2011 11:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BBlatcher     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wait, someone is thinking of making a film based on First Man, i.e. Neil Armstrong? That seems counter productive, as Armstrong keeps his distance. Add in the fact that he got be first man through a combination of talent and random chance and it seems silly. Not that facts and truth will matter in movie though!

Rocketman, a story about Pete Conrad of Apollo 12 sound more interesting. I just finished it and was blown away by the man. Good stuff!

In my perfect world, the "When We left Earth" miniseries would have be a three film trilogy, that covered Mercury to Apollo, with focus on the latter, as seen through the eyes of Deke Slayton or a fictionalized version of him. Make it story of estranged father and son, with the son coming home to take care of his ill father, who was always off involved in the space program.

To me, there's a big question about the space program of the '60s: What did it cost and was it worth it? I don't mean just financially, but the emotional and mental costs on not just the astronauts or mission control or contractors, but their families as well. Set all that against the backdrop of the '60s, as America literally exploded with social change and you have deep, complex movie, hopefully with lots of great shots of the spacecraft!

328KF
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posted 08-26-2011 04:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 328KF   Click Here to Email 328KF     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Delta7:
Johnny Knoxville as Charlie Duke
Haha! Perfect! I'll be the Lunar Olympics would be a bit more "interesting."

dogcrew5369
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From: Statesville, NC
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posted 08-27-2011 01:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Johnny Knoxville as Charlie Duke? I doubt Charlie would see that coming. Played on the big screen by a Jack Ass. Maybe the lunar Rover would be named the General Lee too.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 10-23-2011 05:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I know someone who worked with the script writer and he says he read it.

He said it was really powerful stuff but would likely, "Confuse the heck out of future school kids who'll see it and ask their parents confused questions about a conflicting message of history," much like how some school kids are now getting in trouble for citing in school reports about WW2 on how Hitler was actually gunned down in a Parisian movie theater in 1944 because they saw it happen in the movie, "Inglorious Basterds" without realizing that movie too was a work of fiction...

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 07-13-2016 12:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Funny, not a word about this movie in a long time. The guy I know who read the script said he's only heard, "a giant sucking sound" from any studio on this film and said he thought it was in "development hell," as it's called when a movie never goes anywhere.

There are a lot of scripts that are bought in Hollywood but never get made as movies, I know, as I did a lot of research for a WW2 movie that after six years, finally got axed. I couldn't imagine how much money went into location scouting and such for a film that'll never make a dime...

Blackarrow
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From: Belfast, United Kingdom
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posted 07-13-2016 04:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Apollo astronauts committed a cardinal sin in the eyes of Hollywood... they made safe landings, they succeeded in their tasks, and (worst of all) they came home safely. The one exception was Apollo 13, and although the astronauts actually survived, the very real suspense and drama made for a decent Hollywood blockbuster.

Personally, I'm glad the other missions didn't qualify for the Hollywood blockbuster treatment.

cfreeze79
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From: Herndon, VA, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 07-13-2016 06:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for cfreeze79   Click Here to Email cfreeze79     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wasn't this movie called, "The Martian"?

I heard it did well...

p51
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Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 07-13-2016 07:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I remember as a kid one time, sometime in the early 80s, I'd guess, the 1976 movie, "The Eagle has Landed" came on TV and I was horribly disappointed that it took place in WW2 and was not about Apollo 11.

Years later, I finally saw that movie and realized it's a great film and today it's one of my favorites... but STILL, the title must have confused people every now and then.

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