The first trailer for Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood has landed, offering our first look at what promises to be an out-of-this-world coming-of-age story. Boyhood director Richard Linklater definitely knows how to bring a fresh spin to the oft-used genre, and he’s set to do it again in his new Netflix movie, which delivers a fantastical spin on the real-life moon landings of 1969, all realized in unique animation. Catch the trailer for it above.
As inspired by Linklater’s own childhood and youthful fantasies, Apollo 10 1/2 follows an ordinary boy from Houston, Texas, who NASA secretly hires to pilot a test trip to the moon after the lunar module was accidentally made to be too small for adult astronauts to fit inside (no, that didn’t really happen). Otherwise, the film is a nostalgic and grounded look at life growing up in Houston in the late ’60s amid changing societal and cultural attitudes.
Apollo 10 1/2 is brought to life via a form of animation that Linklater has previously employed on two earlier movies. Namely, 2001’s Waking Life and, more notably, 2006’s A Scanner Darkly, the sci-fi flick starring Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. Though filmed in live-action, the footage was then transformed into animation through rotoscoping, which gives it a lifelike feel. Linklater has explained how the film’s visual style was meant to represent its blend of fantasy and fact.
Well and truly his baby, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood. was written, directed, and produced by Linklater. The ensemble cast includes Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Josh Wiggins, Sam Chipman, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Danielle Guilbot, and Glen Powell, along with Zachary Levi and Jack Black. Look out for it when it makes its debut on Netflix from April 1.
