BEHIND THE SCENES WITH GREG BERLANTI ON FLY ME TO THE MOON

American producer and filmmaker Greg Berlanti admits he's not a director by nature. "I don't wake up every day thinking, 'Oh, what am I going to direct today?'" he tells Esquire Philippines.

The guy—known for his work on popular TV series such as You, Riverdale, and DC’s Arrowverse, as well as the critically acclaimed movie Love, Simon—says there are stories that make him want to wear the director's hat. One example is Fly Me to the Moon, a stylish, multifaceted comedy-drama infused with romance, set during the monumental Apollo 11 mission.

Berlanti admits to being drawn to the story since Day 1. "I loved NASA as a kid. I think I grew up in a generation where everybody still knew the name of all the Apollo astronauts. And there was a real love for what that stood for in American history," he shares. "I had watched all the NASA documentaries through the years and really fell in love with the possibility of being a part of retelling one of those stories for the right reasons."

So when the opportunity to direct was offered to him, he knew it would be not only a fun and entertaining movie but also an important one. "There was a real love for what that stood for in American history," he says. In addition to that, the movie features an all-star cast, led by Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

In this exclusive interview, Berlanti discusses the film, the characters and their chemistry, and how he balanced all the elements of the film, including the comedy.

The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones and Channing Tatum as Cole Davis. 

How did you find out about the story and what made you want to be part of it?

Scarlett Johansson and her company sent it to me. I had met with Scarlett about another project and we had stayed friendly, creatively. They sent me the script and said, "We hope you like it. We need a director. We're going in three or four months." I read it, and I knew right away that I was in love with the story. I loved that a movie star actually wanted to do an original story in this day and age for the big screen. And so, we jumped right in.

Tell us more about the story.

It's 1969 and America is caught up in the great space race versus the Soviet Union. A New York marketing exec is brought in by the government to rehabilitate NASA's image because America was losing a little bit of faith in the program due to things like Vietnam and other events that were drawing their attention. People didn't think we were necessarily going to make it to the moon by the end of the decade. Kelly Jones, played by the wonderful Scarlett Johansson, is brought in to rehabilitate NASA’s image, but is told halfway through the movie by her government handler that she actually now has to work to fake the moon landing while everyone else is working on the real moon landing.

"They each have their own brand of comedy and drama, but they fit well together," says Bernanti about the cast of Fly Me to the Moon. 

What makes Kelly a compelling protagonist in this story?

Kelly's played by Scarlett Johansson and she is a whip smart New York marketing exec with a bit of a past, though we don't know what that is. She is brought in by Moe, a shadowy person working for an elusive government agency, played by Woody Harrelson. He's brought her in to rehabilitate the image of NASA. In doing that, she conceives of this possibility of how to fake the moon landing. And so at the center of it, you have this love story between a man working on the real moon landing and a woman working on the fake moon landing at the same time.

Let's talk about Cole and why he's so passionate about his NASA project.

Cole, played by Channing Tatum, is a true-blue American, a man who's served his country his entire life. He represents the half million Americans who worked on the Apollo mission, who couldn't afford to make a single mistake. In his time, he was representative of the people who were focused just on the mission and not on the sales part of it. He represents the truth, integrity, and belief in people's capabilities, and that profoundly changes Kelly.

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Give us more insights about the rest of the cast.

We have Ruby, Kelly's assistant, played by Anna Garcia. She’s her "aide de camp," her sidekick. She’s also representative of young people in that era who are a lot like the young people today who want to change things.

Jim Rash plays Lance Vespertine, the director of the fake moon landing. He's brought in by Kelly, and he is, I think, very representative of many directors. Some people might have thought there were some similarities between him and me, but he is certainly similar to many individuals I've met in the business over the years who are high-strung but very talented and have a clear vision of how to pull it off.

Woody Harrelson plays Moe. Obviously, Woody's an icon. He can play Moe as the kind of character you adore at first and then he can shift as there's a twist to his character later in the picture. And then you have to like him again by the end. So in imagining what actor could set the stakes for a movie of this size, have a fiendish element, yet still be funny and likable throughout, there's really almost no one other than Woody Harrelson who could pull off something like that. I think he does it brilliantly. He's one of the great actors of his generation.

Then there is Ray Romano, whom I pursued heavily to play Henry in this. I've always wanted to work with Ray because I think he represents so many of the people who also worked on the program, like everyday Americans. And he's so much the heart and soul of NASA in this. He's very much a father figure to Channing's character and their interplay just gives a real dynamic element to both characters.

"In a million years, you might never think to pair them, but once you see them together, it makes perfect sense," says Berlanti about Johansson and Tatum's tandem. 

How was the chemistry between the characters?

As the young people say, it was giving Rock Hudson and Doris Day. It was giving Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. They each have their own brand of comedy and drama, but they fit well together. In a million years, you might never think to pair them, but once you see them together, it makes perfect sense. They have that special quality, and it was fun and exciting to see what would happen each day. My job was just to ensure they didn't bump into furniture and that everybody was enjoying themselves.

Tell us how the you recreated the era and specific locations.

It's really about the crew you step up with and how much you communicate across all departments about what we're going for in each moment. We had as our touchstones a lot of actual footage from the Apollo mission, some of which hadn't even been restored until we did so for the film, and we knew we were going to blend it with our footage throughout. So that started to determine how we're going to shoot the movie.

Dariusz Wolski is a legend and one of the most talented, well-respected directors of photography. Dariusz is just a genius and knew what lenses to shoot on and what moments to focus on, which we communicated with the production design and Mary Zophres, our costume designer. Mary, another legend, has worked on films like Catch Me If You Can and First Man, bringing vitality to the costumes Scarlett wears. Each outfit is a delight. I think part of the fun of doing something in ‘69 is making people want to feel like they could live back there.

The production design department developed concept images that we spent a lot of time perfecting. We recreated the entire firing room, which is the launch room at Cape Kennedy. We shot at Cape Kennedy for a week, captured many exteriors in Savannah for another week, and then filmed the rest in Atlanta during the winter. Making the movie feel like it’s set during the summer of 1969 was one of the things we focused on.

"We got real cameras from that era, which played on the stage and in the broadcast. So we really shot it as if it were that era's news footage," says Berlanti.

You picked Georgia as the setting of the film. Why?

This is the third film I've shot in Georgia, and I love it there. I love the communities. I love the film crews. It's affordable, and for a movie of this scope and size, it's crucial to manage the budget effectively. For instance, we spent the most amount of money on recreating the firing room. All the videos on screen were exactly was played on the moment of the launch. We even had the room on shakers to mimic the actual shaking.

We let the extras and everybody experience the launch from the very beginning. We played it a few times for them so everyone was in this kind of spiritual moment. To accurately recreate the moon landing, we needed a vast amount of space and a deep backdrop so the stars would fall off as they would. We almost required the size of a baseball field and we managed to secure a stage about that big for all the moon walk scenes. So there are a lot of elements that we were able to achieve there. I would do another film in Atlanta in a second. I had a great time there.

Why do people need to see this in a theater?

For years now, I feel like everyone has been asking for more original stories, rather than just sequels or adaptations. So from the outset, when Scarlett supported this original story as both a producer and an actor, I was thrilled to be a part of it. When I was growing up, every weekend you could go to a movie where you didn't know what was going to happen, and I think that ability to go in, experience this, take a trip back in time is rewarding for an audience.

The "big-screenness" of it is what was achieved at that time. It wasn't about being red or blue; it was about everyone working together. A friend of mine, after seeing the film, said, "It's the kind of movie we used to make about the kinds of things we used to do." That's exactly how I feel about this film. I want this nation to be a part of doing more impossible things. So, we made a fun movie about that, which will hopefully entertain people.

Can you tell us about the cat in the film?

So, I'm allergic to cats. When I saw that there was a cat in the movie, it didn't make me want jt want to do the movie, but I thought, "This is going to be interesting. Of course, there's a cat in this movie. How am I going to deal with this?" I ended up working with not just one cat, but three cats to achieve the cat scenes in the film. It's never CGI; the only time we used CGI was for one or two instances when we had to elevate the cat high up, as we didn't want to put it in that situation. But otherwise, it's always a real cat in the movie. These cats were amazing and incredibly smart. I won't say they were the easiest actors to work with because I wouldn't want to offend the other actors, but they were pretty great. The cat has a lot of personality. There was even a bit more of it in the original story and the original cut.

Cole, played by Tatum, "represents the truth, integrity," says Berlanti. 

Tell us about the music, the feeling of being in the sixties. What went into those decisions?

There were two elements to the music: First, the music from the sixties. I started right away with Season Kent, who I've worked with many times across shows and films, to develop a musical language. I wanted sixties music that we haven't heard in countless shows and movies. I aimed for that kind of soundtrack where, by the end, you'd think, "Oh, wow, that's a great song and that's undiscovered," so the moments in the film wouldn't feel like retreads of other movies. She sent list after list, song after song, and even towards the end, she was still finding songs that made me think, "Oh, wow, I haven't heard that one. Let's try that one."

That process went on for months, from deep into prep, all the way through to the end of production. Daniel Pemberton is just a genius; he truly is who he is for a reason. Given the film's blend of tones, we incorporated various musical styles: jazz, orchestral pieces around parts of NASA, and electronic music for the moon and its elements. They all have to feel like one. Daniel added so much nuance and layering into the music. I love his themes—the romantic, emotional, and fun ones. It was just fun to watch him create.

You're recreating the moon landing for a movie, but also recreating the recreation of it. What was it like building that set?

The moon landing is part of the American myth and one of our greatest stories ever told. It's arguably the greatest human accomplishment, achieved by those remarkable men. We wanted to honor all that throughout, but we also needed to convincingly portray what it would have meant to fake it, making that aspect equally realistic. And so from day one in prep, months before shooting, we watched the two-and-a-half-hour footage on loop. Stunt choreographers mapped out every single step. Even though only five or six minutes made it into the movie, we filmed all two and a half hours of moon surface activity from nearly every angle. We even went through a hundred samples of sand grains to get the right moon dust effect when stepped on.

We had a few Lunar Excursion Modules (LEM): one for training and one for the fake moon set. We shot all the moon scenes backwards because it was easier to disassemble the set than to reassemble it. And then we had to figure out how to shoot it in a way that the audience would understand conceptually what’s going on. This was in the script from the very first draft I read by Rose Gilroy, who's incredibly talented. This third act had a pièce de résistance that constantly played with the idea: is it fake, or is it real?

There was the actual coverage of what was happening on the moon, and we used almost all in-camera techniques. We got real cameras from that era, which played on the stage and in the broadcast. So we really shot it as if it were that era's news footage. Everything was contained within that period's context. It involved countless conversations in prep, production, and post-production.

It was a mission! A lot of effort went into it, and no day on set was the same.

2024-07-06T02:15:09Z dg43tfdfdgfd