According to The Hollywood ReporterRyan Gosling stars in a film adaptation of James Hansen’s First Man: A Life of Neil A. Armstrong. The film will be Gosling’s second collaboration with director Damien Chazelle, who directed Gosling in the recent musical film La La Land. Gosling and Chazelle were both nominated for Golden Globes for La La Land and are favorites for Oscar nominations in the new year.
While Chazelle may seem like an unlikely choice to lead a science-based Armstrong biography, both La La Land and his previous film, whiplash, have explored the devastating personal costs of huge ambitions. And no ambition is greater than to be the first man on the moon. The drive to meet Kennedy’s decade-end moon landing deadline has been known to destroy families and marriages in the burgeoning aerospace industry — though, interestingly, not Armstrong’s (he remained married to his first wife Janet until 1993). . The test pilot and moonwalker died in August 2012.
In addition to La La LandGosling starred in movies like Motive, The nice guysthe upcoming Blade Runner 2049, and about 10 billion “Hey girl” internet memes. He was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Half Nelsonin which he proved it was possible to take drugs and still be absurdly handsome.