Casting Call: First Man
In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.
When NASA’s Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong walked out and became an instant American hero. But Armstrong was reluctant to embrace his fame; the media personified him as introspective and extremely humble (he stopped signing autographs when he realized that they were being sold for large sums of money). The upcoming biopic, First Man, will explore Armstrong’s life beyond the spacesuit.
Directed by Whiplash‘s Damien Chazelle, the film is based on the official biography by David Hansen entitled First Man: A LIFE OF Neil A. Armstrong. Hansen worked closely with NASA and Armstrong’s close family and friends to break through his intensely enigmatic personal life. With more than a decade of research, Hansen strove to redefine Armstrong’s place in American history, showing that he was more than a quiet, private man. Josh Singer, who wrote the script for last year’s The Fifth Estate, will adapt the screenplay.
Born in 1930 and raised on a farm in Ohio, Armstrong began his career as a bomber pilot in the Navy during the Korean War. When he returned, he studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. In the ’50s and ’60s, Armstrong worked as a test pilot for experimental airplanes, which provided him with the necessary experience to be selected by the air force’s “Man In Space Soonest” program. Apollo 11 was Armstrong’s final stint in space and he subsequently became a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He recently passed away in 2012 at the age of 82.
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