When Timur Bekmambetov suddenly announced last week that he was producing found footage space thriller Apollo 18, we knew that he and director Trevor Cawood were planning to make it quickly, but we didn’t realise that everything about the movie would happen fast: less than a week since the initial announcement, Cawood has been replaced as megaphone-wielder by King of the Hill’s Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego.
While the previous reports had Apollo 1****8 already in production, the Heat Vision blog’s story amends that to say that the film is kicking off shooting shortly, with a hugely accelerated plan to cast, film, edit and release the thing in three short months and an aim to beat Oren Peli’s **Area 51 into cinemas.
No reason was given for the switch in directors, but it’s possible Cawood, whose previous work was primarily in special effects, decided to hit the eject button because of the quick pace. Gallego hasn’t made an English-language film before, but he does at least have directing experience.
If their plan works, Bekmambetov and Gallego want to have Apollo 18 – which is based on the conspiracy theory of the cancelled Moon mission launching and then actually encountering alien life – in cinemas this March. Think they can do it? And is it possible to make an effects-dependent film that quickly and have it turn out well? You know where to sound off…