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IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Movies

How Operation Avalanche's Filmmakers Duped NASA to Make 'the Most Illegal Movie Ever

• Wired

And why shouldn't it be? It's got everything necessary to be a late-night talk radio/dorm room smoke session favorite: A super-secret government organization (probably the CIA) enlists a filmmaker (possibly Stanley Kubrick) to fake footage of US astronauts on the moon. Matt Johnson milks this preposterous idea for drama and laughs in Operation Avalanche, which opened at Sundance last week.

The story focuses on a group of ambitious young CIA agents who infiltrate NASA under the guise of a documentary crew in order to uncover a Russian mole. Upon learning that NASA is about to blow the deadline for a putting a man on the moon, they get a new mission: Fabricate the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Yes, Stanley Kubrick gets involved. And yes, they find themselves in over their heads.

But here's the best part: That storyline isn't just the plot—it's how Johnson actually made the movie.And why shouldn't it be? It's got everything necessary to be a late-night talk radio/dorm room smoke session favorite: A super-secret government organization (probably the CIA) enlists a filmmaker (possibly Stanley Kubrick) to fake footage of US astronauts on the moon. Matt Johnson milks this preposterous idea for drama and laughs in Operation Avalanche, which opened at Sundance last week.

The story focuses on a group of ambitious young CIA agents who infiltrate NASA under the guise of a documentary crew in order to uncover a Russian mole. Upon learning that NASA is about to blow the deadline for a putting a man on the moon, they get a new mission: Fabricate the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Yes, Stanley Kubrick gets involved. And yes, they find themselves in over their heads.

But here's the best part: That storyline isn't just the plot—it's how Johnson actually made the movie.


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