In an effort to generate public interest in its programs, NASA readily consults on Hollywood projects, including nearly 100 documentaries, 35 TV shows and 16 feature films last year alone. But the agency has pulled back from the documentary-style but fictional lunar thriller “Apollo 18,” which opens Sept. 2, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Marketed as a movie culled from “found footage” from a U.S. space mission that was “leaked to the media,” “Apollo 18” initially was touted by NASA as one of its film collaborations. But the agency now says it was “minimally involved with this picture,” the Times reports.
“There was a time when NASA’s actual missions — not the ‘Blair Witch’ versions of them — were enough,” the Times writes. “But without another high-profile NASA project on the runway, working with Hollywood is key.”