Astronaut Jim Lovell has been brought to the big screen before, most famously by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13. He'll now be portrayed by Pablo Schreiber, appearing opposite Ryan Gosling (playing Neil Armstrong) in First Man.
Director Damien Chazelle is reuniting with his La La Land star for a film that sees Spotlight co-writer Josh Singer adapting James Hansen's book First Man: The Life Of Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was, of course, the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. First Man chronicles his time as a Navy bomber flyer and then test pilot, where he pushed planes to the limit and beyond. In the 1960s, he was recruited to work for NASA, rising up the ranks and ending up leading 1969’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Lovell is one of the few human beings to have flown to the moon – though he went twice without landing on it, including as part of the ill-fated Apollo mission. He also held the record for the first person to fly in space four times.
Schreiber joins a cast that also includes Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Jon Bernthal, Claire Foy and Jason Clarke. First Man will be out in the UK on 2 November next year.