The one film I personally am the most excited for at this year's Sundance Film Festival is Moon (review), which premieres this weekend. We caught up with director Duncan Jones (son of rock legend David Bowie) who chatted with us briefly about the harships of creating a low budget indie sci-fi film, among other things. In the film Sam Rockwell plays Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter while stranded on the moon for a three-year period. Click here for a bunch of clips from the film, or read on for the interview bits.
ON MOON BEING AN INDIE SCI-FI FEATURE
"I think those films that can properly be classified as indie Sci-Fi have to be limited in number to begin with,” he continues, “ Sci-fi by its very nature demands the biggest production values, and, as you can imagine, that’s the hardest thing to achieve with an indie budget.
"Putting MOON together was an intricate puzzle. We wanted to keep our cast small, our shooting environment completely controllable and we wanted to get every last drop of screen value out of our visual effects. We wanted to tell a story that was both intimately human but universal in appeal. It was hugely ambitious, but it paid off.
"MOON was filmed over 33 intense, highly technical days of shooting at Shepperton studios, in the same sound stage Ridley Scott had shot ALIEN nearly 30 years before. The set of our MOON base “Sarang” was a 360 degree environment. The crew would go in through the airlock in the morning, and be sealed inside the base for the rest of the day."
ON STAR SAM ROCKWELL
"MOON was written for Sam Rockwell. I’d met with Sam about a year before making MOON to talk to him about another project. He had loved the script, but was after a different role than the one I had in mind. He tried to convince me, I tried to convince him, but it wasn’t going to work out. He asked me to keep him in mind for other projects, and we started shooting the shit. It came up that Sam was into sci-fi and that if I had something in that genre, he would love to see it. As soon as the meeting was over, I got to work. I needed to write a sci-fi film starring Sam Rockwell!
"It is not far fetched to say that the technical responsibilities put on Sam’s shoulders were some of the most demanding an actor has been asked to deal with in recent years. Other films in the past have had an actor perform with themselves, but never to the degree that Sam had to in MOON. His phenomenal skill and near infinite patience made MOON not only possible, but pushed back the boundaries on this very tricky and unforgiving effect. When you do it wrong, it’s very obvious, when you do it right, its invisible, and amazing! For me, films like Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers and Spike Jonze Adaptation previously wore the crown, and were inspiration to us. I am convinced filmmakers in the future will now watch MOON to see how it’s done.
INSPIRATIONS
If Gerty (our robot), the Sarang, the rovers and harvesters have a retro aesthetic to their design, it’s no accident. Gavin Rothery, concept artist on the film, and my ridiculously talented buddy, drew inspiration from the science fiction films that we loved growing up; ALIEN, SILENT RUNNING, OUTLAND, 2001. The work of Ron Cobb, Sid Mead, Peter Hyams, Ridely Scott and others littered our desks and computers as we worked out what the base and vehicles should look like. We created something of an homage, but also our generations take on that golden era of science fiction.
"MOON’s exterior scenes would be a stylized take on the 70mm lunar photography we saw in Michael Lights amazing book “Full Moon.” In keeping with the 70’s films we loved, and using what we had become skilled at in commercials already, we wanted to blend live action model miniatures with contemporary effects to create a hybrid look for the film. We worked with Bill Pearson, model genius of ALIEN fame, and created sections of lunar landscape for our vehicles to run across, then with the help of Cinesite, we would enhance the models and digitally extend the landscapes."
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
"You know who Takeru Kobayashi is? His nickname is “Big Wave,” and he’s the Japanese world speed-eating champion. He has a world record for having eaten 53 and a half hotdogs, with buns, in just 12 minutes.
"Basically MOON was the film making equivalent.
"We made a honest to goodness science fiction film, with an exciting, intense, heart-wrenching story, an amazing performance by an extrodinary actor, choc-full of gorgeous special effects in 12 minutes, and with the help of only one, small Japanese teenage boy. Ok, not that last bit. But we did do it in 33 days and with an indie budget..."
MOON is playing at this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Cant wait for this. Love Rockwell and the story sounds very unique and kickass. I've heard others (not just the review here) compare it to Solaris and I really enjoyed that one... so woot!
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"I think those films that can properly be classified as indie Sci-Fi have to be limited in number to begin with,” he continues, “ Sci-fi by its very nature demands the biggest production values, and, as you can imagine, that’s the hardest thing to achieve with an indie budget.
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