Universal eyeing Ryan Gosling for Neil Armstrong biopic

By Adam Poltrack November 25, 2015

Ryan Gosling sits behind the steering wheel in Drive. — FilmDistrict

It doesn’t exactly take a giant leap to imagine Ryan Gosling as an astronaut, more like a small step. Especially if you’re talking about the fair-haired, blue-eyed, all-American Neil Armstrong.

According to Deadline, Universal wants Gosling to walk a mile in the first set of shoes to set foot on the moon, as the studio is eyeing the Drive star for the upcoming First Man, which will chronicle the extraordinary life of the iconic astronaut.

Academy Award nominee Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) is helming the project and will direct a script penned by Spotlight scribe Josh Singer. Though Gosling would be the cherry on top, with or without him, this film has some serious talent attached.

The two sides aren’t even officially in talks yet, but Chazelle is currently working with Gosling on La La Land, a musical film about a jazz pianist who falls for an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) in contemporary Los Angeles. If the two managed to play nice on that set, it’s possible that they may be looking to team up again.

Based on James Hansen’s biography of the same name, First Man was originally over at Warner Bros. with some guy named Clint Eastwood planning to direct and produce. As Hollywood scripts are wont to do, however, it changed hands and landed (pun intended) at Universal.

Like its source material, the film will reportedly explore the famed Apollo 11 mission, during which Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on a celestial body not named Earth.

The film has yet to begin shooting and has not set a release date, but we’ll update you as details become available.

In the meantime, you can catch Gosling in The Big Short (December 23, 2015) and La La Land (July 15, 2016).

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