Joining the growing trend of “reality” based SF and horror, Timur Bekmambatov, director of Night Watch, Wanted, and the coming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is “creatively spearheading” a movie called Apollo 18, which supposes that the real-life mission (officially canceled by NASA in the early 70s) encountered aliens. Awww yeah.

Since Apollo 18 has been acquired by The Weinstein Company, there should be no shortage of trailers, posters, and so forth in advance of the picture's March 4^th 2011 release. The premise, SF alternate histories based on the Apollo missions, is something I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of, and though Timur Bekmambatov’s work hasn’t yet demonstrated a terribly strong connection with “reality” this idea certainly sounds intriguing.

There are several other similar—in the sense of being “reality” based SF dealing with aliens—movies on the way, including Oren Peli’s Area 51 and the much-anticipated JJ Abrams/Steven Spielberg collaboration Super 8. While any seeker of the truth worth the tinfoil lining in his/her hat is surely glad to see that Hollywood is acknowledging the existence of aliens, we now need to improve reality; the absence of room-sized computers with hundreds of flashing lights and flying cars is having a terrible impact on 21^st century society.

Danny Bowes is a playwright, filmmaker and blogger. He is also a contributor to nytheatre.com and Premiere.com.