It’s one small step for a studio, but one big leap for the hope that people want to pay money to learn more about Neil Armstrong: Universal Studios is reportedly developing a film based on the life of the first man to walk on the moon.
Damien Chazelle—who helmed the forthcoming (and very well-received) indie Whiplash—is in talks to direct, based on a to-be-written script that Universal has hired Josh Singer to pen. Singer wrote the Julian Assange biopic The Fifth Estate, so he presumably knows something about writing not-great biopics guys who broke new ground. The project has been around for more than a decade—at one point Clint Eastwood was planning to direct—but this new announcement seems to signal that Universal is getting serious. Armstrong’s story is certainly ripe for cinematic portrayal: He flew 78 missions as a Navy bomber pilot before he turned 23, then flew test planes for decades before eventually joining NASA and leading the famed Apollo 11 mission.
However, even if Chazelle does end up directing, The Hollywood Reporter notes that Chazelle will likely first be making La La Land, a musical starring Emma Watson and his Whiplash lead Miles Teller.