Netflix will release the next film from director Richard Linklater, his latest foray into animation called “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure” that stars Jack Black and Zachary Levi and documents the 1969 mission to the moon.
Linklater wrote and directed the film that his Detour FilmProductions will produce with Submarine, and like his films “Waking Life” or “A Scanner Darkly,” it’s a hybrid live-action and animated film the blends CGI imagery with live cinematography.
Linklater wrapped the live-action shoot this March in Austin, and the animation work will be completed at Minnow Mountain in Austin and Submarine in the Netherlands.
“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure” is set in Linklater’s childhood home of Houston, Texas and is set against the backdrop of the 1969 Apollo mission to the moon, which celebrates its 51st anniversary on Thursday.
“Apollo 10 1/2” tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives. It both captures the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and the lesser-seen bottom-up perspective of what it was like from an excited kid’s perspective, living near NASA but mostly watching it on TV like hundreds of millions of others. It’s ultimately both an exacting re-creation of this special moment in history and a kid’s fantasy about being plucked from his average life in suburbia to secretly train for a covert mission to the moon.
Starring in the film are Jack Black, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, Josh Wiggins, Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Sam Chipman and Danielle Guilbot.
Producers on “Apollo 10 1/2” are Tommy Pallotta, Mike Blizzard and Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix for Submarine.
“It struck me years ago that this was my film to make, from both a chronological and proximity level – I was there, going into 3rd grade. Our unique animation style allows both the conjuring of a world long gone, and the flowing, playful expression of memory and imagination. It’s been a fun, creative journey to incorporate things like 3D graphics into a live-action shoot to help bring this story to life,” Linklater said in a statement.
Linklater last directed 2019’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” starring Cate Blanchett. He’s executive producing an animal rescue documentary series for CBS All Access and had made plans for a 20-year project to adapt a film version of “Merrily We Roll Along” much in the way he did with “Boyhood.”
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal with Netflix.