The LA Times has a statement from NASA in the words of their multimedia liaison Bert Ulrich:
“Apollo 18 is not a documentary. The film is a work of fiction, and we always knew that. We were minimally involved with this picture. We never even saw a rough cut. The idea of portraying the Apollo 18 mission as authentic is simply a marketing ploy. Perhaps a bit of a ‘Blair Witch Project’ strategy to generate hype.”
The film’s trailer depicts a found footage type film, similar to The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, that posits hostile alien life on the moon has kept us from ever returning. The film opens today and it’s unclear whether this is a last ditch effort to drum up some buzz for the film or if NASA just really has nothing better to do since their shuttle program was shut down earlier this year.
Then again, I’ve had a conversation with a classmate who genuinely believed Inglourious Basterds was based on a true story, so maybe NASA is doing a good thing after all.
