According to CHUD, at a recent Tribeca post-screening Q&A (we were at a Tribeca screening, but there wasn’t Q&A), “Moon” director Duncan Jones has stated that his next film, the previously mentioned “Blade Runner”-inspired post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie set in Berlin, will feature a cameo by Sam Rockwell as his Moon character, stranded astronaut Sam Bell.
It’s an incredibly ambitious move – both “Moon” and the forthcoming sci-fi movie had modest budgets, but Jones’ imagination is building and populating this entire new world.
“Moon” was a movie that didn’t let its financial constraints control its storytelling or its scope, and it sounds like what he’s attempting with the movie could expand this invented universe in new and exciting ways. Or at least, let’s hope so.
This kind of “universe” is always interesting to explore – like when Michael Keaton’s character from “Jackie Brown” waltz through “Out of Sight” (they were both Elmore Leonard adaptations that featured Keaton’s character), or when “Iron Man” himself Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) turned up at the end of “The Incredible Hulk.” The flipside of this is of course the Kevin Smith universe, which is filled with self-satisfied, but not-actually-clever winky cameos that go, “BOING!” when they’re announced on screen. Uhhh, yeah, not so much…
“Moon,” while not the certifiable mind-melter that the salivating fanboys are making it out to be, is still a refreshingly simple, worthwhile and elegant sci-fi movie, and when it’s released next month (June 12, in limited release), it you should welcome it as a reprieve to all the giant movies with exploding buildings, mindless robots, and budgets to burn on half-assed CGI. – Drew Taylor
