|
'Moon' landing David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, had a little trouble getting his movie off the ground
Jul 03, 2009 (Pioneer Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Some people who make a movie take home an autographed script or even an Oscar as a souvenir. Duncan Jones, director of "Moon," got a permanently messed-up eyebrow.
Jones, currently best known as the David Bowie offspring who used to be called Zowie Bowie, co-wrote and directed the moody sci-fi film, which opens in theaters today. Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut who's stranded on a shuttle for three years with only a robot named Gerty for companionship, and if that sounds like a recipe for madness, it is.
"Moon" looks like a big-budget Hollywood film, but it was made cheaply (by movie standards) for $5 million. That meant working fast and, for Jones, sacrificing eyebrows.
"We were shooting this scene with the camera up 12 feet on a gimbel, and the camera operator had a question about the script. We were having trouble hearing each other and I had the script on my laptop, so I decided to go to him, with my laptop in one hand and scaffolding in the other," says Duncan, who visited the Pioneer Press in April to discuss the movie. "Of course, I lost my grip and fell. My laptop survived, fortunately. I got 30 stitches in my head and came back to the set the next day, bandaged."
By that point, Jones had become so used to setbacks that he barely noticed the stitches. "Moon" actually began with a rejection from the actor who stars in it, Sam Rockwell.
"I had sent Sam a different script and he liked it, but he wanted to play the lead and I wanted him to play the
villain," says Jones.
"We couldn't agree on that project, but we when we met for lunch, we really liked each other. So I wrote this for him, instead."
The second script reading didn't go so smoothly, either. Rockwell was shooting "Frost/Nixon" at the time, so he didn't get around to looking at "Moon" for three months, during which Jones figured the actor probably hated the script. But, eventually, the two began a collaboration.
"We work really well together. We're roughly the same age. We are both only kids. We both had weird, slightly arty upbringings. We were both in long-distance relationships at the time," says Jones, 37. "We were on the same wavelength."
At that lunch meeting, Rockwell and Jones both enthused about such sci-fi films as "Alien," "Outland" and "Blade Runner." Along with the idea of creating for Rockwell a leading (non-villainous) role, that discussion about favorite movies gave Jones a direction for the script, which was co-written by Nathan Parker. And Jones says envisioning his star the whole time made it easy to complete the screenplay.
"I just feel like Sam is such an exciting actor," says Jones, who has an extensive background in commercials and did odd jobs on "Labyrinth" and other films made by his dad, but who makes his movie directing debut with "Moon." "I'm baffled that he's not a leading man already. Whatever he's in -- 'Charlie's Angels,' 'The Green Mile,' 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' -- is so much better because he's in it. I don't know why every director doesn't want him for everything."
Putting his money where his mouth is, Jones already has plans to use Rockwell in his next film, another futuristic drama to be called "Berlin." It will be shot in Berlin -- where, coincidentally, David Bowie recorded "Lodger" and two other albums -- and, this time, Jones says he won't be attempting any daredevil scaffolding maneuvers.
Chris Hewitt can be reached at 651-228-5552.
To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.twincities.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To robotics.tmcnet.com's Homepage ]
|