Sunday 6 July 2014

A Movie About Kubrick Faking the Moon Landing?

Following my recent article about Stanley Kubrick, my interest has once again been piqued by a proposed screenplay that seemingly touches upon some of the aspects raised in my articles - many thanks to Andrew Johnson for bringing it to my attention.(https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cognoscence/conversations/messages/6762)

The following section is taken from a December 2013 article by David Haglund called “A Movie About Kubrick Faking the Moon Landing? Yes, Please.” - http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/12/17/_1969_a_space_odyssey_screenplay_about_kubrick_faking_moon_landing_by_stephany.html

"Yesterday, when I saw the latest “Black List” of unproduced screenplays beloved by Hollywood execs, one title leapt off my computer screen: 1969: A Space Odyssey, or How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying and Land on the Moon. As anyone who has seen Room 237 knows, there is a conspiracy theory of long standing that Stanley Kubrick helped fake the moon landing. Here, to judge from its title—which, of course, pays homage to two Kubrick classics—was a screenplay that took that crazy notion and ran with it. Sounds fun! So I emailed the screenwriter, Stephany Folsom.

'The theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing started circulating right after we landed on the moon in 1969,” Folsom told me, adding that she has “always been fascinated by conspiracy theories”—but also noting that “fascination” is very different from “belief.” “I love the idea that a group of people could be so organized to orchestrate what essentially is a giant con job, but I just don’t buy that people are that competent to execute something on so large a scale without someone dropping the ball or spilling the secret.'

She began researching this particular theory after seeing the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She had “just participated in a NASA Social event, where members of the public can meet with astronauts and NASA scientists to learn about the latest space missions,” and these two 'seemingly unrelated events' got her going. She wrote the script as 'an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s work and space exploration.'

The title led to me to assume that the movie would be a comedy, perhaps a Dr. Strangelove-esque satire. But Folsom says it’s “mostly a drama,” albeit one with “some comedic moments.” The main character is “a female public affairs assistant in the Nixon administration” named Barbara, who is a composite of several women that were hired “as part of Nixon’s Task Force on Women’s Rights. Kubrick is the driving force of the script,” Folsom adds, “but the movie is really Barbara’s journey.”

I asked Folsom if the Kubrick estate might pose an obstacle to getting such a movie made. She replied simply that the script is “a cinematic love letter to his work.” And while she couldn’t tell me too much about where the screenplay stood in the development process, she did say that “things are happening.”


Further details about the screenplay are revealed on The Black List 2013 webpage:
#13 - "1969: A Space Odyssey or How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying and Land on the Moon" by Stephany Folsom. http://list.blcklst.com/story/7887

"With NASA's Apollo program in trouble and the Soviets threatening nuclear war, a female PR operative conspires with NASA's Public Affairs Office to stage a fake moon landing in case Armstrong and Aldrin fail, the goal being to generate public excitement that will aid the U.S. in winning the Cold War. But the op is faced with the biggest challenge of all: Filming the fake lunar landing with temperamental Stanley Kubrick."

Whilst I am all in favour of the mass dissemination of material that raises questions about the many facets of Stanley Kubrick’s connection to elite and hidden global agendas and cover ups, I naturally have concerns that material of this kind merely muddies the waters of such subjects even further. It is interesting that Folsom’s screenplay postulates Kubrick’s involvement with staging a fake moon landing as a “back up plan” in case the “real” Apollo 11 mission should fail. This notion clearly supports the idea that NASA’s Apollo missions were either viable or intended.

Furthermore, the modus operandi for the staged landing (in the context of the narrative) is seemingly necessitated by “Cold War” wrangling and one-upmanship. Any amount of alternative research into the “Cold War” indicates that the paradigm was, sizeably, a carefully orchestrated psyop – in line with the political/social/cultural conveniences of the time – designed substantially to perpetuate a climate of fear to keep the masses in line with predetermined perceptions of the world around us. Such things continue to this day – only the names and faces of the proverbial “bogeyman” have changed somewhat.

Of course, we should keep in mind that Folsom’s screenplay is little more than a fictional construct. However, such mediums often have the effect of creating (or serving as a) plausible deniability platform. Hollywood generally excels in such things and oftentimes seems to exist to wholly serve such a purpose – that or churning out trite chunks of trivial distraction and mind rot.

I also find it curious that Folsom is quoted (in David Haglund’s article) as saying “The theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing started circulating right after we landed on the moon in 1969." This is actually an unusual statement to make, given my own research into the subject. As of yet, I have been unable to find any evidence, citing Kubrick and the possibility of a Moon hoax in the same sentence or context, before the mid-1990s (I have dated the earliest utterance of the possibility to 1995.) Although there are compelling clues to such a connection before this date (such as the NASA/Kubrick connection via the production of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the visual/thematic clues in his film “The Shining”), there appears to be no documented mention of “Kubrick’s involvement in staging the moon landings” before the said date.

If anybody has evidence of such a statement before this date (a quote by anybody in a pre-1995 book, magazine, documentary, interview, etc.) please let me know as I am still hopeful that such evidence exists out there somewhere. Such evidence would blow the whole Kubrick paradigm wide open and, in some way, further cement such a notion in reality.

Finally, I would like to mention a couple of observations about Folsom. I find it odd that her screenplay has been languishing for a while on something called “The Blacklist”. Although, in this regard, the list refers to stories that are considered “hot” in Hollywood circles, I was under the impression that the term “blacklist” usually implies something that has been isolated or shunned for subversive reasons. It seems I was mistaken!! The screenplay recently had a "live reading" (involving a notable cast and a sizeable audience) in an LA theatre, so it can’t be that shunned. http://stephanyfolsom.com/2014/06/26/how-to-survive-a-live-reading-of-your-screenplay/

Andrew Johnson picked up on the fact that Stephany Folsom “learned the realities of movie making by assisting director Tony Scott on set.”http://stephanyfolsom.com/about/

There are a number of important question that need to be asked regarding Tony Scott. Aside from the high strangeness that surrounded his death (as with Stanley Kubrick, I might add), Scott had a long involvement with various players associated with what I generically call “hidden global agendas”. Here is a short section, from my recent book “Science Fiction and the Hidden Global Agenda”, regarding Tony Scott:
(see: http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/science-fiction-and-hidden-global-agenda.html)


"His 1986 movie ‘Top Gun’ was, at best, nothing more than a recruiting tool for the USAF. At worst, it was a blatant piece of military propaganda. However one sees the film, it has always been a top favourite of the establishment. The U.S. military have sought a sequel to the film for almost 30 years. Shortly before his death, Tony Scott announced that he was in the early stages of producing 'Top Gun 2'.


‘Just two days before 68-year-old Scott leaped to his death he had been with Tom Cruise discussing a sequel to their 1986 hit 'Top Gun'. The pair toured the Fallon U.S. Naval air station in Nevada, which is home to the Naval Weapons Fighter School where the real life Top Gun pilots complete their training. 'We had a meeting just two weeks ago and he was burning with the excitement of creating stuff,' said Tom Rothman, chairman of 20th Century Fox.”

‘Tony Scott's suicide note to loved ones offers no clues as to why the filmmaker jumped to his death’, MailOnline, 24 August, 2012 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2193261/Tony-Scotts-suicide-note-loved-ones-offers-clues-jumped.html


In September 2012, film director Alex Cox posted an article on his blogsite entitled ‘Tony Scott’s Suicide Note’. Cox was the director of the fondly remembered 1984 science fiction crime comedy ‘Repo Man’. He has also expressed awareness about various aspects of the hidden global agenda. His article discussed the various connections between Hollywood and the agenda establishment. (The ‘Jenkins’ he refers to in the article is Tricia Jenkins' and her book ‘CIA in Hollywood’.)

‘For your edification, here follow the actors, directors, writers, producers and studio execs who the author links to the CIA, usually found 1) visiting CIA headquarters to party with the spooks, 2) taking instructions from CIA, or 3) actively helping to encourage CIA recruitment. Tony Scott heads the list. Jenkins reports that CIA was particularly fond of his masterpiece TOP GUN, ‘the single best recruiting tool the navy - and specifically naval aviation - ever had (and) was looking for a project that could help them do something similar.’”

(Alex Cox, “Tony Scott's Suicide Note”, 7 September, 2012 - http://alexcox.com/blog.htm)

I will be posting some articles on both Tony and his brother Ridley Scott very soon, so watch this space.

Until next time!
Carl (The Truth Seeker’s Guide)
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-1.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-2.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-3.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-4.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-5.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-6.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-7.html
http://thetruthseekersguide.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-stanley-kubrick-conspiracy-part-8.html

Books available from Carl James:
Science Fiction and the Hidden Global Agenda - Volume One - http://www.lulu.com/shop/carl-james/science-fiction-and-the-hidden-global-agenda-2016-edition-volume-one/paperback/product-23209429.html
Science Fiction and the Hidden Global Agenda - Volume Two - http://www.lulu.com/shop/carl-james/science-fiction-and-the-hidden-global-agenda-2016-edition-volume-two/paperback/product-23209433.html
What Really Happened at the London 2012 Olympics - http://www.lulu.com/shop/carl-james/what-really-happened-at-the-london-2012-olympics/paperback/product-23221527.html

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