Ryan Gosling is playing Neil Armstrong in Damien… | Little White Lies

Incoming

Ryan Gosling is play­ing Neil Arm­strong in Damien Chazelle’s next film

09 Mar 2017

Words by John Wadsworth

A man with dark hair wearing a suit and tie, looking pensive against a blue backdrop.
A man with dark hair wearing a suit and tie, looking pensive against a blue backdrop.
The pair are work­ing on a biopic about the first man on the Moon.

After see­ing Moon­light take home Best Pic­ture at the Oscars, Ryan Gosling and Damien Chazelle are on course to make a lunar trip of their own.

The star and direc­tor of La La Land are set to reunite for the Neil Arm­strong biopic First Man, based on for­mer NASA his­to­ri­an James Hansen’s book of the same name.

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

Gosling orbit­ed the lead role for a while before con­firm­ing his involve­ment in Decem­ber 2016. With Spot­light​’s Josh Singer on script duties, it’s shap­ing up to be a rather intrigu­ing prospect.

Rather than cov­er­ing the entire­ty of Armstrong’s life, the film will be a ​“mis­sion movie” focus­ing on the years between 1961 and 1969, con­clud­ing with the his­toric Apol­lo 11 landing.

For those won­der­ing how Chazelle plans to make the giant leap from jazz music to space trav­el, the direc­tor is keen to point out the famil­iar the­mat­ic ground.

Speak­ing to Col­lid­er back in 2015, he drew par­al­lels with Whiplash, anoth­er tale of an ambi­tious man mak­ing per­son­al sac­ri­fices in order to attain great­ness – a descrip­tion that could just as eas­i­ly apply to Gosling’s char­ac­ter in La La Land.

Uni­ver­sal seems to have high hopes that First Man will rock­et to stratos­pher­ic suc­cess – an Octo­ber 2018 release date sug­gests that the stu­dio is con­fi­dent they have an awards sea­son con­tender on their hands.

For­get the ear­ly awards hype – who should play Buzz Aldrin? Let us know @LWLies

You might like

Two men performing on stage, one holding a microphone and the other playing a keyboard. The image uses a blue and white tone.
Incoming

The great biopic brain drain

by Callie Petch

In an age of Walk Hard knock-offs, why are the biopics that con­tin­ue to play it safe the biggest suc­cess stories?
Collage of scenes from various films and media, including characters, settings, and visual elements. Diverse mix of human figures, creatures, and abstract shapes in a variety of colours and compositions.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part two

by Little White Lies

Here’s the sec­ond half of our annu­al pre­view, fea­tur­ing upcom­ing films from Lynne Ram­say, Bong Joon-ho and many more.
Collage of scenes from various films and TV shows featuring diverse characters and settings.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2025 – part one

by Little White Lies

We’ve put togeth­er our annu­al pre­view of some excit­ing films to look out for in the next year.
A woman with dark hair in a side bun wearing a dark jacket, with a surprised expression on her face.
Incoming

Fancy winning a neon sign used in The Souvenir Part 2?

by Little White Lies

Cin­e­ma for Gaza is host­ing a char­i­ty auc­tion rais­ing funds for Med­ical Aid for Pales­tini­ans (MAP) with incred­i­ble prizes donat­ed by the likes of Til­da Swin­ton, Josh O’Con­nor, Har­ris Dick­in­son, Annie Lennox, Mike Leigh and many, many more.
Collage of scenes from various films, featuring a range of characters, settings, and visual elements.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part two

by Little White Lies

In the sec­ond half of our pre­view look­ing ahead to 2024’s upcom­ing releas­es, we look at work from David Low­ery, Lynne Ram­say, Mati Diop and many more.
Collage of diverse film stills featuring people in various settings and poses, with a range of colours, moods, and visual styles.
Incoming

100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part one

by Hannah Strong, Charles Bramesco and David Jenkins

New year, new movies! We look ahead to the films com­ing our way in 2024 – includ­ing new projects from Bong Joon-ho, George Miller, Rose Glass and many more.