Fly Me to the Moon: What Was NASA's Reaction to Making a Fake Moon Landing Movie?

Fly Me to the Moon lands in theaters on Friday, July 12th.

By Liam Crowley

One of America's biggest conspiracies is being unraveled on the big screen. Dating back to 2022, Apple Studios had been developing a movie set on the backdrop of the 1960s space race between the United States and the Soviet Union but with a twist: it would explore a "contingency plan" called Project Artemis, a secret soundstage production that would shoot a fake moon landing to air on national television should the legitimate Apollo 11 mission fail. Eventually titled Fly Me to the Moon, this Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum-led flick would work tirelessly to ensure all of its space-based events, excluding the fabricated Project Artemis, played out as they happened in real life. This meant collaborating with NASA itself.

What Was NASA's Reaction to Fly Me to the Moon?

GREG-BERLANTI-FLY-ME-TO-THE-MOON-FAKE-LANDING-NASA-REACTION
(Photo: NASA)

The world leader in space exploration embraced faking its greatest accomplishment on the big screen.

Speaking to ComicBook, director Greg Berlanti shared that despite the conspiratorial central plot, NASA approached Fly Me to the Moon enthusiastically.

"I think NASA was so excited to be a part of it because they knew that the film was as much about revering and acknowledging what  was accomplished as it was about showing the audience how it could have been faked," Berlanti explained. "I think if the reason and the theme of the movie wasn't ultimately about the truth, I think they might have had a different perspective."

NASA provided the Fly Me to the Moon team with several technical advisors from the Apollo era, all of which helped guide the film in an accurate direction by sharing their real-life experiences working for NASA in the 1960s. The contributions went beyond spoken anecdotes as well, as Berlanti was also provided with never-before-seen footage of those aforementioned Apollo missions that helped inform how Fly Me to the Moon would be shot.

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"They were so participatory in every way," Berlanti praised NASA's help throughout production. "How we shot. Where we were allowed to shoot. I think we shot more for a narrative film inside the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) and around there than anyone ever has. It was an awesome experience and it gave everybody on the movie that worked on the film a sense of the importance of it. We hope that that translates in the movie."

Fly Me to the Moon lands in theaters on Friday, July 12th.

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