Moonshot Airs Monday 20 July

Hi everyone - the broadcast details have finally come through and here they are:

MOONSHOT: The Flight of Apollo 11
Premieres Monday 20 July 2009

ITV1 at 10:50pm GMT (UK)
More details here

The History Channel - 9pm ET (USA)
More details here (including video preview)

Synopsis:

Starring Daniel Lapaine (Hotel Babylon, Muriel’s Wedding) as Neil Armstrong, James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville) as Buzz Aldrin and Andrew Lincoln (Afterlife, Teachers) as Michael Collins, this drama documentary weaves the story of the men who undertook the mission with HD Nasa footage of Apollo 11 to bring together a unique testimony of this historic event.

Written by Tony Basgallop (Hotel Babylon), and directed by Richard Dale (Diana: The Last Days of a Princess, 9/11: The Twin Towers), Moonshot is the compelling story of the moment that united 600 million people around the world.

Dramatising key moments and events in the years spent preparing for their mission, the film builds a picture of the astronauts’ lives on the ground and how they shaped what happened in space and on the moon.

Moonshot Screening

Very excited to announce the 1st screening of Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 at the BFI Southbank this Friday 3rd July. After the screening there will be a Q&A with the director and some of the cast. You can book your tickets at the BFI website. Here's the BFI's intro to the evening:

A fine new TV docu-fiction, Moonshot interweaves cinematic drama with hi-definition NASA footage in presenting glimpses of life behind the scenes in Houston alongside edge-of-your-seat moments in space. Written by Tony Basgallop (Hotel Babylon) and directed by Richard Dale (Diana: The Last Days of a Princess; 9/11: The Twin Towers), Moonshot is the compelling story of the moment that united 600 million people around the world.

Moonshot - the book

First comes book, then comes movie, then comes DVD in the DVD case. Let's start with the book, published in May 2009 - Moonshot: The Inside Story of Mankind's Greatest Adventure by Dan Parry.

From the 4 star Time Out review by Peter Watts:
"'It was the arduous ordeal of defecation that really tested the men's resolve.' It's sentences like that which make this look at the first moon landing such a page-turner. Constructed as artfully as the Saturn V rocket that shot Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins out of the Earth's atmosphere 40 years ago, Moonshot dovetails passages covering the history of the space race up to 1969 with terrific reportage of the Apollo 11 mission itself, from launchpad to splashdown."

The story, as author Dan Parry tells it, is so compelling that a major TV drama was screaming to be made. How perfect that Parry is also Head of Research at Dangerous Films, a leading independent production company. Formed in 2003, it has produced the television events 9/11-The Twin Towers, Diana - The Last Days of a Princess, D-Day 6.6.44 and Emmy-nominated Human Body - Pushing the Limits.

So in May/June 2008 Dan Parry, the Dangerous Films team and cast which included Daniel Lapaine as Armstrong, James Marsters as Aldrin, Andrew Lincoln as Collins (and me as Collins' wife, Pat), traveled to Lithuania to shoot Moonshot, a major TV factual-drama inspired by the book.

Now, just over a year later, ITV is about to unveil the fruits of our labor. Next month (exact date TBA) Moonshot will be broadcast internationally. I, for one, am thrilled to finally see it! Stay tuned for details.