If you’re not already a member of our Facebook page, or following us on Twitter, there is a good chance you have been missing out on some fantastic behind the scenes revelations on the making of MOON.
MOON Concept Artist & VFX Supervisor Gavin Rothery has started posting up some rather wonderful snippets about his experiences of making MOON, starting at the birth of GERTY, and continuing through, so far, to the revealing of Director Duncan Jones and Co-Producer Nicky Bentham as eventually unseen murdering space bastards.
We even find out that the MOON crew, were the crew of the Eliza rescue ship, as you can see below. There’s Gavin on the left as the captain, 1st Assistant Director Mick Ward in the middle and Director of Photography Gary Shaw on the right. I shan’t reveal anymore here…for now, head over to Gav’s site, and fill your boots
Promoting his forthcoming film ‘The Hole‘, legendary film Director Joe Dante was recently surprised in an interview with Digital Spy using questions submitted by twitter.
One of those questions came from our very own occasional tweeter, MOON Director ManMadeMoon (Duncan Jones).
ManMadeMoon asks “The Hole trailer looks great! The premise is so simple but intriguing. How long have you been working on the idea?”
Here is Mr Dante’s response, to both the question, and the revelation of who the question was from.
Head over to Digital Spy Movies Twitter page for links to the rest of the tweet submitted questions.
MOON and Source Code Director Duncan Jones took time out of his busy schedule to do a little e-mail interview for us last night. There is still a large amount of interest in MOON, and anticipation for Duncan’s next film Source Code, with Jake Gyllenhaal. Hopefully we asked the right questions, and got the answers some of you may have been looking for…
We’ve had plenty of MOON inspired fan contributions from drawings and paintings, to short fan made movies, have not had a song so far though, until now.
MC Matches from Houston, TX has sent us his remix of Lupe Fiasco’s “Shining Down” featuring a verse inspired by Sam Bell’s time on Sarang…
We asked MC Matches what was it about MOON that inspired him to create:
The movie really related to me first of all because I’m a sci fi/ digital age guru. I actually work in the energy industry, and it is a well known fact that oil and gas will eventually deplete, and alternative energy such as wind will be our primary source. This movie displays truly what humans will start doing, branching off to new planets just to find energy.
The movie can be related to what is going on in the energy industry at the moment, we spend time and resources training individuals to work in remote locations such as offshore, when if the technology existed we could just send clones. Then it’s a question human life, and do you really want to create life and abuse the human race by lieing and telling them that they are on a 3 year assignment and that they will be going home to a wife that is really dead? When Sam finds out the truth he is crushed, which reminds us that human life is not to be toggled with in this manner.
I love this movie because it opens our eyes to what we should expect to see in the future. Not to mention the most creative minds on earth came up with the plot to this film, and when I saw it I knew I had to be a part of it in some way.
And so, it came to pass, that Thursday 29th April 2010 came to be the final day on the ‘Source Code‘ shoot in Montreal. Director, Duncan Jones announced this very thing, this very day on the Twitter:
This time last year, Duncan was but a first time feature Director, awaiting the release of his first feature ‘MOON‘, now look at him, thoughts cast to the future of the Jet Set life in Blackpool, UK. This is the dream kids, apply yourself to your chosen field, and you too could one day take your partner up the Tower Ballroom!
Shooting began on ‘Source Code’ on March 1st 2010, with principal shoot in Montreal, Cananda, and a second unit shooting in Chicago, USA. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright, and Russell Peters, ‘Source Code’ is a Sci-Fi story centered on a soldier (Coulter Stevens played by Gyllehaal) who wakes up in the body of a commuter who witnesses a train explosion. All is not as it seems however, as Stevens is tasked with discovering the source of the explosion, and each time he fails, has to relive the same events again and again, piecing together the clues to discover the cause of the explosion.
Source Code star Jake Gyllenhaal wrapped on Thursday 21st April, leaving Director Duncan Jones and crew with just 4 days shooting in Montreal left next week, completing on Thursday 29th April.
The whole shoot started on 1st March 2010, and seems to have flown by, a suprised Jones tweeted yesterday:
Oh my good knees! This is the LAST FRIDAY of the Source Code shoot!!!
All that is left to do then, is lock them all in a dark room, and not let them out until they have finished making a jolly good film!
We are still none the wiser on exactly what they have been up to over in Canada, not helped by teasing tweets from Duncan like this from 18th April:
By the way… cant say what it is, but saw the “big money shot prop” for Source Code today.. its un-bloody-believable! Best prop ever!
There have also been no official pictures released from set, but there have been a few from other sources over the last few weeks, check Jake Gyllenhaal fan site Wet Dark and Wild for more like this of Michelle Monaghan & Jake Gyllenhaal filming Source Code in Millennium Park, Chicago, 9th April 2010:
In other news, nice to see enthusiasm for the film has lead to the creation of a dedicated Facebook Page, Film: Source Code which you can join if you want to catch up on further details, you can also follow them on Twitter if that’s your bag
Duncan Jones Directorial debut MOON has received a nomination in the 2010 HUGO Awards. Announced on the Aussiecon4 Twitter feed this evening, the nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long are:
Avatar
District 9
Moon
Star Trek
Up
Some stiff competition there, we’ll find out whether MOON can take the prize at the awards at Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne on Sunday, 5 September 2010. Full list of nominations on the Aussiecon 4 site.
The Hugo Awards, to give them their full title, are awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They were first awarded in 1953, and have been awarded every year since 1955. The awards are run by and voted on by fans.
MOON fans in Japan are being given the opportunity to take part in an innovative Twitter campaign promoting the April release of Duncan Jones’ debut feature.
From midnight on 25th March, until midnight on 31st March, the first 1000 Twitter users who follow the account promoting MOON & tweet using a specific hash tag ( #moon_otoko ) will be given special access to view footage from the movie online.
Users will be selected, and then be able to view the 1st 18 minutes of the film online on 5th April, while tweeting along discussing film at the same time.
Great to see MOON continue it’s journey around the world, and certainly seems to be getting some cool attention over in Japan.
MOON opens in Japan on 10th of April, see HERE for our previous coverage on the Japanese launch.
And maybe if you click on the image below, you’ll get to speak to GERTY
This post has been a long time coming (well since last Wednesday 17th March) because it’s been quite hard to know where to start. Such was the fantasticyness of the Jameson Cult Film screening of MOON at the Royal Institution in London.
As you may recall, we first raised a call to arms back in January 2010 when we discovered via our old friend Ben Mortimer that Jamesons were running a vote off between MOON, Donny Darko & War Of The Worlds (1953). The prize being a screening of the winning film at a very prestigious venue, The Royal Institution, London. So, we spread the word via all means possible to encourage all MOON fans to vote, and blow me down, we scored a massive 59% of the vote and won!!. Our gobs was smackered, and we started to get in touch with the wonderful Jameson account Manager Mr. Mauricio Samayoa from We Are Social to find out the what was what’s.
Now, we knew MOON was popular, and as all true cult films do, it has quickly grown beyond it’s initial theatrical and home releases to build a fantastic following of lovely people (like you, you’re my favourite btw), but I don’t think even Jamesons were prepared for the demand on tickets, as word spread on our platforms of choice (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs) the initial demand for ticket registration caused the hosting server to take a breather & nip out for a cup of tea FANTASTIC
The fantastic team at Jameson Cult Film Club got going with making arrangements, and as much as we were aware of the venu and some details of the evenings events, there were some suprises (from both sides) that elevated the evening beyond what any of us could have hoped for.
Do you mind if I takes a breather? Thanks, I’ll just grab a mug of splosh, you have a look at these rather good pics from @unclewilco and I’ll get back to you just underneath in 5 mins? Ta
Good aren’t they? Hopefully give you an idea of the effort that both Jamesons & The Royal Institute went to, to create a very special evening.
We all started arriving at around 18:30 for a 19:00 start with a great buzz building outside, and what an honour it was to enter the building that has born witness to some of the greatest scientific discoveries for more than 200 years! Members of the public entering these hallowed halls is no surprise however, as the RI supports public engagement with science through a programme of lectures, the most famous being those you may have seen (or been lucky to attend) on the telly box at Christmas, funnily enough called the ‘Royal Institution Christmas Lectures’ Check out their site for events and details on the most famous exhibit, a reconstruction of Michael Faraday’s laboratory.
Upon ascending a curving marble staircase to the 1st floor, it soon became clear why we were there though, corridors lit in a mysterious spacey green tint, beautiful space ladies with silver hair directing us towards the Space Bar where we were met by a superb array of Jameson Whiskey beverages, I plumped for the ginger, but I did hear mention of some kind of pickle licking thing en all? It was not all guests though. When Jamesons put on these events, they pull out all the stops, we had surly looking Sam Bell 2 walking about (chap refused to crack despite being provoked) and a sad Sam 1 reclined on a sofa looking worse for wear (he was also spotted later tending his plants) This all added to the atmosphere of the evening, along with the decking out of the place as MOON base Sarang, entrances to the main auditorium labelled BAY 1>3. Plenty of Lunar Industries signs up as well to make it clear where we were.
The building of atmosphere continued into the main auditorium. As we took our seats and looked up at th screen we were greeted by the site of an astronaut suspended from the ceiling, an animatronic one we all assumed, until he was lowered to the floor and made his exit, in slow motion, zero gravity style, big applause.
Lights down and we were eased into the screening itself with a support short ‘Blake’s Junction 7‘ very funny, disturbed by my feelings towards MacKenzie Crook as Servalan though!
Then we got the main feature, Duncan Jones’ MOON, and time to sit back and marvel at the achievement of team MOON, to make such a fantastic film, with such tight budget constraints, and create an instant cult classic. I also had to prevent myself from tapping MOON’s very own Benedict Wong on the shoulder each time he appeared on screen to say “that’s you that is” as he sat in front of me, cause, well, he knew that
Was great to discover afterwards that 2 of the peeps I went in with were seeing MOON for the first time (lucky buggers) and met many more afterwards the same, all mighty impressed with the film, and Sam Rockwell’s stunning performance
So with all the effort and surprises from Jamesons and the fantastically helpful Mauricio Samayoa how could it get any better after that? Meeting people, that’s what. Sharing a drink and a real life chat with some of the wonderful tweeters and bloggers we’ve all been talking to about MOON for the last year, up to this point.
But most of all, we were honoured to have MOON cast & crew with us for the screening as well.
So I’d like to thank them all especially for coming,to the screening, icing on the cake (to go with the moon dust the Jamesons ladies was dishing out)
I’m sure I’ve missed stuff out, it was an incredible evening and i can’t recommend attending a future Jamesons Cult Film Club enough, they really love film, and go above and beyond to provide a very memorable experience. Follow them on Twitter for future announcements, and check their site for details on previous / future screenings HERE
And what a wonderful experience it was to hook up with people through social networks and combine with minimal communication to end up with such a FANTASTIC evening.
We also managed to catch up with the MOON crew for a video interview conducted by Ben Mortimer and filmed by James Cuff which is being edited as I type, so we’ll wang that up later if that’s ok.
Thanks to EVERYONE involved in the evening, especially all of you who loved MOON, voted, and came to the event
Filming of Duncan Jones new feature ‘Source Code’ has completed it’s first week already! Week two will begin tomorrow, but how’s it going so far? Luckily Duncan has popped out a couple of fresh tweets this afternoon to let us know.
So! 1st week on Source Code: built a train, and it’s a beauty, but a bugger to shoot on. JG & MM are such a good laugh! Love em to bits.
JG & MM being Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan, ‘Source Code’ also stars Jeffrey Wright and Vera Farmiga, and will also feature the recently announced Russell Peters.
Jones continued:
SC has more humour in it than we saw on the page, & that’s been great fun! Shot some of our effects tests & they’re wonderfully horrible!
Additional humour may well come from Russell Peters extended scenes, as his official site press release states:
The reason for the re-scheduling is that Russell has landed a role in the Sci-fi action movie, Source Code. The film is set to be directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) and star Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) and Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye). Originally scheduled to start shooting after the Australian tour, Russell’s shoot dates were moved-up when the producers decided to expand his role in the film with additional scenes and dialogue. Russell must now report to set on February 23rd until the end of March. (Which also means that his Las Vegas show on March 27th will need to be re-scheduled).
So, there ya go, sounds like all on track, and building up a nice head of steam We’ll keep you updated as and when we hear owt else.
We’ll keep you updated as and when we hear owt else.