Duncan Jones is the writer and director of new low-budget British science fiction thriller Moon, which is out today in the UK. I caught up with him at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival to find out more about how he came to make his first film.
Jonathan Melville: Can you tell me a bit about your background in the film industry?
Duncan Jones: I started doing low budget music videos and commercials in London, both during and after film school, and worked in the computer games industry. I finally did a reasonably sized commercial for McCain oven chips which was my big break.
Soon after that I moved to a new agency as a creative for a year-and-a-half, directing as well. Having a proper salaried job for a while was good and meant I could spend more of my own time on film ideas.
It also meant I had access to lots of special effects heavy work, such as a French Connection commercial, which gave me all the tools I needed to do a feature film.
How did Moon come about?
It started with Sam Rockwell. I’d sent a script to his agent for a different film about three-and-a-half years ago which he loved, but I wanted him to play the villain. He’d had enough of that sort of role and didn’t want to be typecast - he wanted to play the lead so he invited me to New York to try and convince him. We met up in New York, but it didn’t really work.
Luckily we got on really well, chatted about films and what we could do. For my first film I wanted to work with people I respected and could work with, and he seemed perfect. Sam talked about wanting to do “blue collar” science fiction.
There was a period of blue collar sci-fi’s in the late 70s and early 80s, films like Outland, Silent Running and Alien that had those really believable, non-heroic characters who weren’t lantern jawed but just out in space dealing with the isolation and the difficulty of working there. That got me really excited and I said; “I don’t have anything right now but I want to work with you, let me go and write something for you.”
I think he was a little bit cynical but that’s how it started, wanting to write the old science fiction films we loved.
There’s definitely a Silent Running vibe in there, especially with the scene with the plants. Am I right in thinking one of them is called Ridley, after director Ridley Scott?
All the plants are named after directors. There’s a Kathryn [Bigelow, director of Strange Days], a George [Lucas] a Stanley [Kubrick] a Douglas [Trumbull, director of Silent Running]. If you freeze frame the DVD on that shot you can see most of the names.
Was it important to have those contacts you made in your early career?
I think so. At the time the budget was around £2.5 million ($5 million) that’s a big budget for a first time filmmaker making an independent film, a really good budget, but for a science fiction film it’s tiny, so trying to inflate what everyone could invest was crucial.
We had a really good package, with a script people liked and Sam Rockwell attached, which made it appealing but at the same time a lot of investors were concerned we didn’t have enough money to do what we wanted to do, so it was a strange push and pull between first film and science fiction film. The showreel, the pitch and the package are vital, as was having Sam attached.
As tragic as it sounds, the film wouldn’t have happened with a British actor, there was no belief that there was an audience big enough to pay back the investment in the film so we had to go the American route.
Sam Rockwell is fantastic.
Absolutely, he’s kind of cocky and quirky, and I know he hates that word, but the reason he’s not Christopher Walken quirky is that there’s something empathetic and human about him and he has something deep about him.
There were very personal stories I wanted to tell. I was going through a really horrible long distance relationship with my girlfriend at the time, and so was Sam, so we could really relate to that whole aspect. When I sent him the script he picked up on that.
How did you get Kevin Spacey on board?
It was through Sting’s wife Trudie Styler, who’s very supportive of young British filmmakers. She became involved with helping us find the final funding and is incredibly well connected and knew Kevin at the Old Vic. She passed the script to him and he loved it.
He’s also a big admirer of Sam, but he was one of the people who said, “I don’t understand how you can do it for that money.” He was concerned it would look like a bad film. So we went ahead and made the film without him and used any of the crew who happened to be free on the day to read Gerty’s lines to Sam.
Poor Sam had to deal with a young girl one day, an older guy the next. Then Kevin came in for half a day at the end of shooting and did all his lines in one go.
There are references to old TV series such as Bewitched in the film. Were they always in there?
That was always the plan. We never specified the date this was meant to be happening and just felt like another reference point. There are some things that are more geared to an American audience, like turning the TV off with a clap of the hands or getting your hair cut with Flobies, this vacuum cleaner attachment they used to sell on late night TV and you plug it on to the end of the cleaner and you cut your hair. There are also some British references they don’t get…
Chesney Hawkes?
Chesney Hawkes, exactly! They don’t get the irony there.
I’ve read rumours about a Moon trilogy
It won’t be a sequel, prequel, remake, reinvisioning or whatever they call them these days. I have this idea of a universe of what might happen in this timeline.
Moon is one story, the next film I hope to make, another science fiction, is called Mute and it’s my love letter to Blade Runner which takes place in a future Berlin. It’s a completely different story although hopefully Sam Rockwell will come and do a really small cameo for the film which will be like an epilogue to the character of Sam, but they’re totally independent stories.
Then way down the line, once I’ve done some non-sci-fi films, I want to do an action film set in London, also taking place in that world.
Where do these long term plans come from?
I think taking ten years to make your first film gives you a lot of time to think about what you’ll do when you get there.
Although the film is only just coming out, what plans have you got for the DVD?
There is a short film I did a while back called Whistle and a lot of people have asked about that – on my IMDB there are only two things, Whistle and then Moon! – so we’ve been trying to clear the rights to that to put on the DVD release.
There’s also a short Making Of about how we did the effects, maybe some commentaries, some concept artwork. It’ll be basic just because it’s a little independent film. To be honest, the process of making the film, both on the publicity side and the DVD side I’ve learnt an awful lot, and for the next film I’m going to have a script and a shortlist script of extra things I can release that aren’t in the film. I don’t want to release scenes from the film and give things away.
Duncan Jones, thank you for your time. Follow Duncan on Twitter @ManMadeMoon
Moon is on general UK release from today.Labels: Moon, Sam Rockwell
One of my favourite films of recent years was Swedish vampire story, Let the Right One In, which I give five stars to in today's issue of The Guide.
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