| FEARS takes a trip to the dark side of the MOON with director Duncan Jones |
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| Written by Joseph B. Mauceri | |
| Thursday, 23 April 2009 | |
 It is the near future and astronaut Sam Bell (SAM ROCKWELL) is living on the far side of the moon. He is about to complete a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home but only taped messages that Sam can send and receive.Sam’s time on the moon is almost over and in a few short weeks he will be reunited with his wife and their three-year-old daughter. Finally, he will leave the isolation of “Sarang,” the moon base that has been his home and he will finally have someone to talk to beyond “Gerty,” the base’s well-intentioned, but rather uncomplicated computer. Suddenly, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three year contract Sam started all those years ago. Confined with what appears to be a clone of his earlier self, and with a “support crew” on its way to help put the base back into productive order, Sam is fighting the clock to discover what’s going on and where he fits into company plans. Duncan Jones makes his feature directorial debut with Moon. He started out working for director Tony Scott. After a stint in computer games, Duncan created the CG/live action commercial Blade Jogger, which won a top award at the UK's Kodak Student Commercial Competition, and his short film Whistle, which has screened at festivals around the world. He then established a notorious reputation for controversial fare in the advertising arena. In 2005, Duncan founded Liberty Films with producer Stuart Fenegan to produce feature films and commercials. Duncan is currently writing and developing his next feature, Mute, with support from The UK Film Council. FEARS: As a fan of the genre, right away I saw that MOON was this unique tale that also works as a homage to great sci-fi films. DUNCAN JONES: I have always been a fan of science fiction films. In my mind, the golden age of SF cinema was the 70s, early 80s, when films like Silent Running, Alien, Blade Runner and Outland told human stories in future environments. I've always wanted to make a film that felt like it could fit into that cannon. FEARS: And like great sci-fi literature those films are more about stories, as opposed to the more recent adaptations of works like I, Robot, which was more about the action. DUNCAN JONES: There are unquestionably less of those kinds of sci-fi films these days. I don't know why. I have a theory though; I think over the last couple of decades film makers have allowed themselves to become partially embarrassed by SF. It's ok to "geek out" at the cool effects and "ooo" and "ahh" at amazing vistas, but we' re not supposed to ever take it too seriously. We've allowed ourselves to be convinced that SF should be frivolous; for teenage boys. We're told that the old films, like Outland and Silent Running are too plaintive; too whiney. I think that's ridiculous. People who appreciate science fiction want the best for the world, but they understand that there is an education to be had by investigating the worst of what might happen. That's why Blade Runner was so brilliant; it used the future to make us look at basic human qualities from a fresh perspective. Empathy. Humanity. How do you define these things? FEARS: Exactly! Good fiction, great science fiction allows us to look at the human condition in a different light by setting these stories against alien technologies and environments. DUNCAN JONES: However, authors have a huge amount of freedom to probe science fiction any way they want. They only have themselves to please. Filmmakers must convince huge numbers of people, studios, actors, and financiers to support the story they want to tell. They have to convince them that there is a waiting, hungry audience out there. It's far easier to convince financiers to back "an adrenalin-pumped roller-coaster ride of a movie," than Silent Running. Than 2001: A Space Odyssey! Could those films be made now? I really don't know. The beauty of MOON was that it was such a small, tightly contained project that I knew we could do it on an indie budget; one so little no one would bother stepping in and trying to stop us. FEARS: Given the vast number of planets in the universe, let alone our solar system, what lead you to set your story on the Moon? DUNCAN JONES: The Moon always seemed to me to be an obvious place to set a science fiction film; it's floated above our head since long before life on our planet even came to be, it's been a central element and focus for how all civilization developed, and yet it still remains so mysterious. We've been there! ...but so long ago, that the adventures of the Apollo astronauts have taken on a mythic quality. Everyone can relate to the Moon. More than that, everyone feels a personal connection to the Moon. Every night, it is science fiction sitting in our eye line. The other thing was that quite a few years ago I read "Entering Space," by the renowned astronautical engineer, Robert Zubrin. Zubrin put forward a wholly scientific and engaging case for why and how humanity should be colonizing our solar system. It was a nuts and bolts approach to space exploration, and took on board the fiscal appetites that would need to be catered for in order to make space colonization attractive in our capitalist world. One of the first steps was to set up a "shake-and-bake" Helium-3 mining facility on the moon to extract fuel for fusion-powered generators. The book made a real impression on me. I couldn't help thinking that that first step into space habitation, a step that would be made for profit rather than purely scientific reasons, was a fascinating conflict of interests. Companies by their very nature would seek to extract the maximum amount of raw materials from any endeavor, for a minimum outlay of costs. That's just good business. But without any locals, without human rights groups or oversight to keep an eye on things, what might a company try to get away with? What might even the most benign, "green" corporation be willing to do? What would they do to a lone, blue- collar caretaker on a base on the far side of the Moon? These are some of the basic ideas that informed the science fiction setting of Moon, but this belies the root of the film; its human element. Moon is about alienation, it's about how we anthropomorphosize technology, it's about the paranoia that strikes you when you are in a long distance relationship and it's about learning to accept yourself. A lot to take on for a little indie film, but maybe that was the best place to try and do it. It is "only science fiction" after all. FEARS: So what were you earliest sci-fi film memories that truly influenced MOON? DUNCAN JONES: When I was a kid, I grew up all over the place. A multi-national "mutt." Films, at first on Umatic tape, later on VHS video, used to be one of my few anchors. Prized possessions that would up-sticks and come with me, making me feel like I was at home wherever I was. I remember one of the films my dad used to play me was Munchausen. No. Not the Gilliam one... one from much earlier on. The film built up to a grand adventure to the Moon. One of the first Umats I had was a prized copy of the original Star Wars. It was such a long time ago that the pirated film came on multiple Umatic tapes. You had to switch tapes half way through the film, but it made me king of the nerds among my school friends. Kids would beg to come over just so we could sit and watch the film time after time, marveling at every scene, every frame. I didn't have that much access to other sci-fi films at that time though... I had Kubrick's 2001, but I wasn't really getting it back then. It would be a few years before I would appreciate what that film meant. Around the time I was 13 I started seeing films like Silent Running and Outland. I came late to Blade Runner and saw it for the first time on a crappy pirated VHS at around the same time I was reading Neuromancer. It terrified and excited me like no film I had ever seen before. I would say it was the film that most affected me, and because of the age I was, what was going on in my head at that time, I think it may always hold that position. It cemented my love and appreciation of SF, and it gave me a hunger to tell a story that would affect someone else as much. I've got a ways to go, but Moon is my first step. FEARS: You mention Neuromancer, what other science fiction did you read growing up? DUNCAN JONES: My real sci-fi education back then came at the hands of 2000 AD. 2000 AD was the daddy of all sci-fi comic books in Britain. It's where Judge Dredd originated, though the Dredd from the comic books was a far cry from the homogenized version Sylvester Stalone portrayed. Dredd was a fascist cop; a Gollum of law who brought the full weight of justice down on all law-breakers, no matter how petty or accidental their misdeeds. As a kid, reading Dredd, Robo-Hunter, ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog and later Rogue Trooper and other comics filled my head with a pithy mix of the best of British sci-fi and the dark and bitter humor that infused it. Around the time I was 11 or 12 I started branching out a bit. My dad got me started on George Orwell and John Wyndham. Soon my fellow nerds had put me on to Philip K Dick (who I loved) a little Asimov, (not my favorite,) and eventually J G Ballard, whom I took a while to get to grips with. William Gibson's Neuromancer made a huge impact on me becuase I was a computer geek, and it finally felt like someone who got my generation was writing about a future I really believed was going to happen. FEARS: In addition to sci-fi examining the human condition, it also examines social and political issues. One of the things explored in someone of the older films you’ve mentioned is the role of “Big Business” in the future. You touch on it briefly in MOON, but do you subscribe more to the notion of the dark side of corporations controlling our lives in the future as opposed the more utopian Star Trek outlook? DUNCAN JONES: Well as far as Star Trek goes, I can’t wait to see J J Abrams’ Star Trek! (laughs) As far as a utopian view of our future, I have no idea. I think human nature is a very different thing than human civilization. The society we set up, no matter how we set it up, is always going to have to adapt to human nature. If that is greed and selfishness or charity and sensitivity, our society will be a reflection of that, not necessarily the technologies we have. I think the tongue-and-cheek thing we try to do on MOON is that Lunar industries is a green corporation – a green energy company. I thought that was a nice little touch that even companies that are trying to do the right thing there is this motivation to be profitable and look after the share holders. FEARS: So how did your love of the genre give rise to MOON? DUNCAN JONES: I think it must have been some time in January of 2007 that I met with Sam Rockwell in a cafe in NY. We met to discuss what I was hoping would be my first feature film, but there was a problem... the meeting we were having was over a different script than MOON. It was a script Sam loved, but he was trying to convince me he was right for the lead and I wanted him for a different part. It was crazy, infuriating! We weren't going to convince each other, so we dropped the subject and started talking about other things; our love of films, sci-fi, the classics; Outland, Silent Running, Ridley Scott's Alien, and Blade Runner. Films we grew up with. He was cool. He was funny. He was smart, and an incredibly nice guy. It was totally obvious this was the guy I needed to make my first film with but it wasn't going to be with the script we were there to talk about. I decided I had to write something new, for him, a sci-fi film, something for Sam and Sam alone. FEARS: I think genre films are more effective when you have these great actors in the leads, but they’re not a Tom Cruise or a Brad Pitt where you end up analyzing their performances more than getting into the story. I think Sam Rockwell is such a great actor, gives a brilliant performance here, and really allows the audience to become fully immersed in the drama. DUNCAN JONES: As I mentioned, I wrote MOON for Sam. I love him as an actor and think he is fantastic. There were things I just knew that he could do that I hadn’t really seen him have the chance to do that often. He was the lead in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but other than that there have been few opportunities for him to show what he is capable of. I don’t know why it hasn’t been more obvious to everyone that he is a phenomenal actor. To be honest, it’s not tat I went out of my way to avoid casting someone who was more, I guess the term is “A List.” It was that I only could see Sam doing it. FEARS: It’s funny because you other lead in the film is a computer that is voiced by someone who I believe is an “A List” actor, Kevin Spacey. When you discussed the part how did you want him to approach the part and what did you talk about in terms of the character? DUNCAN JONES: I was lucky in that I was able to give Kevin a copy of the script before we shot it. He was very much aware of the type of vibe we were going for. But I think he was concerned that because of the budget how were we going to manage to pull it off. He took a bit of a back seat and said, “You know what guys, why don’t you come back to me when you’ve made the film so I can see if this is a film I really want to be associated with.” (laughs) Over the process of shoot the film and being able to show him a rough cut of the film, I think Kevin’s appreciation for what we were trying to do, what Gerty is, and how integral he is to the story… not giving too much away… as a homage to these older films and to characters like Hal… I don’t want anyone to think that I hadn’t see 2001 before. What I was doing paying homage to those films I absolutely loved growing up. I think Gerty is different in a very smart way than from what Hal was. Kevin Spacey understood that was what I wanted to do. We came up with this performance that would lead the audience one way and surprise them as the film progressed. FEARS: I’ve had the pleasure to visit both Pinewood and Shepperton Studios in the UK. There is such an amazingly level of artistry and craftsmanship at those studious. Do you think you could have shot MOON any other place? DUNCAN JONES: I think that there were so many things that came together in the only way they could have on this film, be it the budget we ended up with or the fact that we shot on the sound stages at Shepperton Studios. It was a very unique situation. I think you’re right in that Shepperton has a certain spirit to it and pedigree. We were actually shooting on the same sound stage where Riddley Scott shot Alien. There was a ghost of sci-fi past with us. FEARS: MOON has such a great visual style. What did you use as you reference for your production designs? DUNCAN JONES: Visually, we had two very different environments to address, the interior of the base, and the exterior Moon setting. Fortunately we had a " bible" of a book for the exteriors; "Full Moon" by Michael Light, is an amazing collection of cleaned up NASA photos of the Moon from the Apollo missions. Anyone with any interest in space should buy a copy of this masterpiece, and I recommend the larger format version of the book. Filled with beautiful, high-contrast 70mm photography of the Moon from both space and its surface, it gave me a very clear idea of what I wanted the exteriors of our film to look like. The interiors were an opportunity to get our homage's in. The base and its vehicles would be our take on the designs of guys like Ron Cobb, Sid Mead and others. We wanted the base to have the same "grit and big boots" feel as the old sci-fi we missed, as opposed to the more contemporary but wimpier "l-Pod" glass and touch-screen design most sci-fi seems to go for these days. Things would look like they were made of concrete. The architecture would look engineered and have hard angles. With Tony Noble pulling off miracles to make our visualizations a reality, we would make the whole base look like it was made of pre-fabricated sections, bolted together at airlocks. Outland was a huge influence, as were elements from Alien, Silent Running, and an eclectic mix of lesser-known sci-fi. FEARS: In terms of the designs for Gerty, there are elements of the design that pay homage to the robots of Silent Running and even Star Wars. How did you decided on the functionality of the design to fit the base environment? DUNCAN JONES: One thing we had to decide early on was how would Gerty, the base's robot, function? It was important for the story that he was literally part of the base, so we suspended him from the ceiling, and broke him up into sections that could get on with jobs independently. His arms would basically be separate entities. From a shoot perspective, it meant that we would be able to use live action props and puppets for a good number of shots, and then save up our meager postproduction budget for the more dramatic wide shots where Gerty is zipping about the base. These enhanced Gerty shots would be done by the fantastic London special effects house Cinesite. FEARS: A memorable component of any great sci-fi film is the score. You went with composer Clint Mansell. What lead you to Clint as opposed to someone like James Newton Howard or a John Williams? DUNCAN JONES: There are really two reasons. On a personal level, Clint is a friend and someone whose work I hugely admire. Especially, his score for Requiem for a Dream, a score that is almost used all the time for other film trailers and things like that. He is a amazingly talented guy. During the course of our offline edit, we found ourselves using a couple of pieces of music as placeholders and one of those was from the Requiem soundtrack. The fact that Clint was friend it just seemed so obvious. Maybe people don’t realize just… he probably doesn’t want me to say this… how sensitive and lovely guy he is. Of all the people I know in the music industry, he’s the kind of composer who can appreciate the subtleties of what we were trying to do in the film and the emotional notes we were trying to hit with Sam. I think it worked out incredibly well and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again. FEARS: Given the personal nature of this film and your obvious love of the genre, if a studio approached you with a big budget action sci-fi epic can you see yourself making that type of film? DUNCAN JONES: I will say that I will be working on more sci-fi films. It’s looking very good that my next film, assuming I have the opportunity to make another film, will be a sci-fi film as well. I’m definitely very happy to keep working in science fiction. My main reason for that is that I think there is something innate to doing science fiction that allows you to tell very human stories, and the audience will open themselves up to them. I think one of the beauties of science fiction is that if you don’t think of it as being purely an opportunity to show off technology, if you really think of it as an opportunity to tell human stories, what you can do is give audiences the candy and the distance that they need to allow a really human story effect them in a more direct way. That’s what I’m hoping and it seems the reactions are coming back for MOON prove that to be right. I’m trying not to preach to the audience, I’m just trying to show them an aspect of the human condition I find interesting. The science fiction surrounding opens the audience up a bit more to that. FEARS: Given all that you read growing up, is there a sci-fi story or novel that you’re passionate about, that hasn’t been adapted yet, and if you have the opportunity you might? DUNCAN JONES: There are few, and some of them that I can’t talk about. I would hope to be able to get the rights to them and hope nobody else knows about them. There is on that might just be too big to ever make. I huge Phillip K Dick fan and I love The Man in the High Castle, an alternative history story. I think it’s just fantastic. I think that could be an amazing film, but it may be too big. It may also be just too political. I just don’t know if it’s a film that could get made. There are some short stories in 2000 AD that I would love to do, and those I really can’t talk about too much. The more I think about it I can’t really talk about the stories I’d really like to talk about! (Laughs) FEARS: Given all the different writers you grew up with, who are you reading these days, what modern authors might I find in your library? DUNCAN JONES: I never got bored of J G Ballard short stories. I have a fairly short but intense attention span. His short stories work great for me. Especially these days because I’m bouncing around promoting MOON, reading a lot of scripts, and doing a lot of writing myself. It’s just great just to dip into those. Another friend of mine is Neil Gaiman and I try to keep up to speed with things he writes. I think he is a great writer and an incredibly imaginative guy. I must admit that because of the growth of the Internet I find myself spending so much more time reading on the Internet that I spend even less time reading literature. I guess that is affecting everything, like television and films as well. It’s certainly taken up an even bigger piece of the pie of my time. FEARS: Seeing how science and technology reshapes our future, were do you feel they’ve made the biggest impact on what you do as a director and film maker on MOON? DUNCAN JONES: I used a little bit in commercials and on MOON is a process called motion matching. It allows us to move a camera in an environment and digitally replicate how that moves so you can stick something into an environment, generally a computer generated (cg) object. I can create a cg object and move a camera around the room, and then I can stick the cg object in the shoot and it will appear correctly and match the environment. That is something that is moving forward by leaps and bounds. Something like being able to do a handheld camera move and then stick a machine or monster into that room and make it look photo realistic. The expense of being able to do that is dropping incredibly. All of a sudden that opens up so many possibilities, especially for independent films. All of a sudden a film like Hardware, a film that was done with all practical props and has a very unique look, you remake that film with a cg character, not saying that film needs to be remade. But you could redo it with an all cg character and it would have an entirely different feel. I think the cost is almost at a point where you could have a character like that in a live action film and it is feasible at an independent film level. We’re not there just yet. I think there are certain guys out there with a real talent for creating cg characters who can animate them and light them themselves. I know there are a lot of guys on the Internet who are doing their own short films. I don’t know if you saw the guys who were doing the Half-Life films, or there was a guy who was doing something for Halo and is working with Peter Jackson now. But these guys are doing live action films with cg objects, and doing it in a very photo realistic way. All of a sudden all types of options are opening up. FEARS: Well you have a very diverse background. You work in commercials, did a few shorts, and you also worked in the video game industry. DUNCAN JONES: Absolutely! FEARS: Of all those different disciplines, which do you feel prepared you the most for MOON? DUNCAN JONES: It’s got to be the commercials. I worked very briefly with Tony Scott, whose film Pelham 123 is coming out! (laughs) He was incredibly generous with his time to me. He talked to me a lot about what I wanted to do and how did I plan to get where I wanted to go. His advice was that if you want to make feature films work in commercials for a while. You learn how all the equipment works, you get used to dealing with a crew, you get used to dealing with schedules and budgets, and all the things you will have to deal with on a feature. On commercials you get to do it in little bites, with some of the best crews. I think commercials are the ideal film school for someone who wants to work in features. Official Website : moonthemovie.com Click on: Tribeca Film Festival Summary - MOON Screenings:
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