‘Fly Me to the Moon’ Director Greg Berlanti on Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Instant’ Chemistry and Landing an Unexpected Theatrical Release
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Director Greg Berlanti didn’t intend for his new romantic comedy “Fly Me to the Moon” to have a theatrical release. “It was originally direct to streaming,” Berlanti says, speaking Thursday at a friends and family screening of the Columbia Pictures and Apple Original Films movie at San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood. “But then we handed in the cut and we started testing it.
We tested it in Denver and it went very well. We tested it in California and we tested it in Texas. Every time, it was very much a resounding response from the focus group and testing that this was a theatrical movie.” A reimagining of the history of man’s first trip to the moon, the movie stars Channing Tatum as Cole Davis, a former military pilot in charge of Apollo 11’s launch.
Scarlett Johansson co-stars as Kelly Jones, a New York advertising executive who is hired by the White House to market the space program to politicians and the American public. “The other thing that the testing audience also kept bringing up was wanting to see an original movie.
They were so grateful for an original,” Berlanti says. “Even though it’s obviously historical fiction, it’s an original story wrapped around that.
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