[Firestarter]

NASA-Hollywood bromance; Magnificent Desolation

The “bromance” between NASA and Hollywood has continued to this very day.
No government agency is so intertwined with Hollywood as NASA. NASA provides material support for space movies to justify its $19 billion annual budget. NASA also stages PR stunts like interviews with astronauts from space and science experiments from the International Space Station for the kids.
NASA actually negotiates with the movie studios to get more exposure.

Naturally NASA worked on Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995).
NASA’s Boeing KC-135 aircraft, normally used to prepare astronauts for zero gravity, was also used to shoot the weightless scenes with the stars of the movie Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton.

Hollywood has worked on space movies like: Gravity, Hidden Figures, Passengers, The Space Between Us, and Life. In many of these cases, NASA offered expertise, personnel, and even shooting locations, to bring these propaganda films to life.
Bert Ulrich has worked on dozens of films for NASA, including: The Avengers, Hidden Figures, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. During the filming of Tomorrowland at the Kennedy Space Center, Ulrich watched the launch of the Mars maven probe with stars in the movie Hugh Laurie and George Clooney. He also hoped to get approval for First Man, with Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong.

Not all the films that NASA is involved in feature the official NASA logo.
Space movies that don’t feature enough NASA input, like Gravity, are often ridiculed for their lack of “scientific accuracy”.

NASA’s main mission these days is Mars — President Donald even met Elon Musk to talk about a possible flight.
One of the most prominent film projects was Ron Howard’s National Geographic “documentary” Mars.

NASA also helped on Ridley Scott’s 2015 film The Martian. Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, was asked to speak with Ridley. Green is the head of a $1.6 billion division that apparently could find nothing better to do than consult a movie director.
According to the state propaganda, the result was one of the most realistic depictions of a mission to Mars ever.
The Martian got 7 Oscar nominations and generated priceless publicity for the space program. After the movie was completed, star of the movie Matt Damon even visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility in California for a press event alongside astronaut Drew Feustel and other NASA employees.

NASA was pleased that Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures was filmed, about 3 African-American mathematicians who helped launch John Glenn: https://www.mensjournal.com/entertainmen...e-w470462/


Not only NASA has been involved with Hollywood, but also the Pentagon and CIA…
An American got information on propaganda movies in which the Pentagon collaborated by means of a FOIA request.
He got a 2014 list with 323 movies and a 2016 file with 410. The 90 added movies were mostly “older” films; some from the 2014 list were excluded.
Both lists aren’t complete. The 2015 film Aloha, is for example missing, but this is referred to in the Air Force’s entertainment liaison office reports.

Following are some of the propaganda movies in which the Pentagon collaborated:
Apollo 13; Armageddon; Batman and Robin; Superman vs Batman; A bridge too far;
Clear and present danger; The hunt for Red October; Patriot games; Sum of all fears;
Empire of the sun; From here to eternity; Godzilla;
Goldfinger; License to kill;
I am legend; Indiana Jones and the last crusade; Jurassic park III;

The killing fields; Karate kid II; The next Karate kid;
The silence of the lambs; Sleepless in Seattle;
Star Trek IV; Star Trek: resurrection; Top Gun;
Transformers; Transformers 2; Transformers 3; Transformers dark of the moon; Transformers: revenge of the fallen;
True lies: https://www.spyculture.com/updated-compl...dod-films/


Or watch the movie “Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D” (2005); co-written, produced and directed by Mark Cowen, and co-written, produced and starring Tom Hanks (who also starred in Apollo 13).
This looks like the real thing to me but with a much better fidelity...


For this film they used Green screen special effects, with the hills in the background added later. This technology was already available in the 1960s.


They didn’t need trillions to make it, but only $3 million. The movie made more than $40 million at the box office…
See “Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93DxZ_NmZB8