posted 08-02-2018 02:39 AM               

On the heels of their six-time Academy Award®-winning smash, "La La Land," Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle and star Ryan Gosling reteam for Universal Pictures' "First Man," the riveting story of NASA's mission to land a man on the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the years 1961-1969. A visceral, first-person account, based on the book by James R. Hansen, the movie explores the sacrifices and the cost — on Armstrong and on the nation — of one of the most dangerous missions in history.

First Man: The Annotated Screenplay is the official companion to the movie, and features a wealth of stunning photography, alongside the full shooting script.

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Josh Singer ("Spotlight") and James R. Hansen, whose book "First Man" is the only authorized biography of Armstrong, provide an in-depth commentary on the challenges of dramatizing a fact-based historical motion picture. Exclusive annotations separate those facts from the dramatic fictions the filmmakers utilized, as well as explain the overarching dramatic choices made in telling the story of the man behind the icon.

• Hardcover: 240 pages
  
• Titan Books (October 9, 2018)
  
• ISBN-10: 1785659995
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1785659997

posted 10-09-2018 01:00 PM               

'First Man: The Annotated Screenplay' reveals what the film got right — and wrong

In the opening scene of "First Man," moviegoers immediately find themselves in the cockpit with Neil Armstrong aboard an X-15 rocket plane.

The screen is filled with a lot of true-to-life details, from the layout of the aircraft's controls to the look of the silvery pressure suit. Even the callouts being made by Armstrong — portrayed here by Ryan Gosling — were taken directly from the real 1962 flight logs.

The curvature of the horizon comes into view and it is as if director Damien Chazelle used a clip from a vintage NASA film. (For the record, he did not, though he did choose to shoot in 16mm to capture that same grainy archival look.) But then the camera captures something that should not be there — a dense layer of clouds.

posted 10-11-2018 03:32 AM               

Fittingly, the team on First Man played it strictly by the book, and, aided by the boffins at Omega's headquarters in Bienne, Switzerland, set out to equip the cast in period-correct Speedmasters. Production began in the summer of 2017, and throughout the filming schedule it used Omega archive watches and specially made replicas, all consistent with the timeframe of the movie. More than 10 period-specific Speedys, in two different references, were made for Gosling and the Apollo 11 team. The reason for the two references is that the ST 105.003 (the very same model that NASA tested in 1964) and the ST 105.012 were both worn by Armstrong first in training and then for the actual Moon mission.