Damien Chazelle is certainly not resting on his laurels after all the acclaim for Whiplash. He’s already editing follow-up musical drama La La Land and has one eye on a future project, which might be close to finding a star. There is a chance that Ryan Gosling might play Neil Armstrong in First Man.
The biopic, which Spotlight co-writer Josh Singer is busy adapting is based on the book First Man: The Life Of Neil A. Armstrong by James Hansen. Armstrong was, of course, the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. It’ll chronicle his time as a Navy bomber flyer and then test pilot, where he would push planes to the limit and beyond. In the 1960s, he was recruited to work for NASA, rising up the ranks and ending up leading 1969’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Chazelle jumped aboard last year, but according to Deadline, it’s still early for talk of Gosling’s involvement – especially as the screenplay remains in development. Still, given that he was one of the leads on La La Land, there was plenty of time for Chazelle to discuss it with him, and they now have an established director/actor relationship.
If it all comes together, this will finally see First Man get off the launch pad, where the idea has sat for more than a decade, and one point had Clint Eastwood attached to make it for Warner Bros. Now Universal is hoping Chazelle can make it work, and snagging Gosling would be a big help. La La Land, which also stars Emma Stone and J.K. Simmons, will be out on July 15 next year.