The “found footage” genre really does seem to be exploding into a hefty trend, with a variety of filmmakers giving it a stab. The latest? That would be Timur Bekmambetov, who is adding yet another project in his endless battle with Guillermo del Toro to see who can win the title of Busiest Man in Movies. Bekmambetov has just scored a deal with The Weinstein Company for alien encounter thriller **Apollo 18.
Deadline reports that the film is apparently shooting in secret (with Matrix sequels VFX man Trevor Cawood directing from a script by Brian Miller) and features footage that is credited to the astronauts of the eponymous NASA mission.
There’s just one slight hitch: Apollo 18 was cancelled along with several other missions due to budget limitations and scheduling issues. The movie will be fed by the urban legend that the crew did actually launch in secret, with the added bonus of their cameras capturing alien life.
It really sounds like Bekmambetov has pulled a JJ Abrams on this one, since the movie is apparently already set for a March 4 release next year. Well, in the US, at least – we’ll have to wait and see if a UK distributor picks it up after seeing the footage shot so far at the American Film Market.