But in an alternate universe—one where a cannonball spacecraft arcs toward the Sea of Tranquility, carrying two bickering stepbrothers and a stolen Soviet flag—there exists a movie that dared to ask: What if the greatest adventure wasn’t just under our feet, but 239,000 miles above our heads?
By J. Alexander Rowe | Cinema History
Early concept art (now circulating only on fan forums) depicted a hybrid spacecraft: a spherical, cannon-launched capsule grafted onto a modern lander. The film would have split its tone—giddy, slapstick banter in Earth’s gravity, shifting to hushed, awe-struck silence on the lunar surface. Dwayne Johnson (Hank) and Josh Hutcherson (Sean) were reportedly approached, but Johnson’s schedule was already choked with Fast & Furious and Hercules . Director Brad Peyton, who helmed Journey 2 , expressed interest but demanded a $150 million budget—$50 million more than the previous film. from the earth to the moon movie journey 3
The true killer, however, was tone. Studio executives worried that “mixing the reverence of Apollo 13 with the levity of a kid’s adventure” would please no one. Test audiences in early 2012 (according to an anonymous script reader’s blog) found the juxtaposition “jarring”—one scene featured a moon buggy chase, the next a silent tribute to fallen cosmonauts. From the Earth to the Moon: Journey 3 was officially shelved in 2013. The Journey franchise went dormant. Tom Hanks’ miniseries remains a high-water mark for factual lunar storytelling. But in an alternate universe—one where a cannonball
But in an alternate universe—one where a cannonball spacecraft arcs toward the Sea of Tranquility, carrying two bickering stepbrothers and a stolen Soviet flag—there exists a movie that dared to ask: What if the greatest adventure wasn’t just under our feet, but 239,000 miles above our heads?
By J. Alexander Rowe | Cinema History
Early concept art (now circulating only on fan forums) depicted a hybrid spacecraft: a spherical, cannon-launched capsule grafted onto a modern lander. The film would have split its tone—giddy, slapstick banter in Earth’s gravity, shifting to hushed, awe-struck silence on the lunar surface. Dwayne Johnson (Hank) and Josh Hutcherson (Sean) were reportedly approached, but Johnson’s schedule was already choked with Fast & Furious and Hercules . Director Brad Peyton, who helmed Journey 2 , expressed interest but demanded a $150 million budget—$50 million more than the previous film.
The true killer, however, was tone. Studio executives worried that “mixing the reverence of Apollo 13 with the levity of a kid’s adventure” would please no one. Test audiences in early 2012 (according to an anonymous script reader’s blog) found the juxtaposition “jarring”—one scene featured a moon buggy chase, the next a silent tribute to fallen cosmonauts. From the Earth to the Moon: Journey 3 was officially shelved in 2013. The Journey franchise went dormant. Tom Hanks’ miniseries remains a high-water mark for factual lunar storytelling.