Will Roland Emmerich ever stop subjecting us to his hit-or-miss disaster movies?
The acclaimed director has been attached to his latest project Moonfall since 2016. The film is based on a spec script he wrote with Harald Kloser and Spencer Cohen that centers on the moon being knocked out of orbit and hurtling towards Earth.
Well, after four years of development it looks like the project is finally coming together. Halle Berry and Josh Gad are the first two actors to sign on to the upcoming film.
Berry will play an “astronaut-turned-NASA administrator whose previous mission holds a clue to the catastrophe,” while Gad is playing “an eccentric genius that deduces that the moon has fallen out of its orbit.”
How these two fit into the plot, which officially reads “the moon is knocked from its orbit by a mysterious force and is on a collision course with Earth. Life as we know it hangs in the balance and with just weeks to go before impact, a ragtag team is sent on a seemingly impossible mission to land on the lunar surface and save humanity” is unknown at this point. I can’t really see Gad being a co-lead, so I imagine someone like Brad Pitt or Chris Hemsworth will be announced in the coming weeks to co-star as another astronaut alongside Berry.
When the project was first announced it was described as the lovechild of 2012 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Yup, you heard it correctly. It’s the type of film that 2012 would love dearly and Close Encounters would watch after getting back from buying a pack of smokes.
Since Emmerich first destroyed the world in 1996’s Independence Day, he has yet to truly achieve something that has become part of the pop culture landscape again. Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012 have their fans, but they are few among many.
Moonfall has an interesting name (I guess), so here’s hoping the story is solid and the rest of the cast is tight. How about we cast Keanu Reeves and get a little John Wick: Chapter 3 reunion going?
Lionsgate will distribute Moonfall which is hoping to get started on production in the fall.
Do you think Moonfall has the chance to be a winner in the disaster genre? Let us know who you want to see cast alongside Berry and Gad in the comments below!
