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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 13 (film) | 3/7 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13_(film) | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:37:59.048022+00:00 | kb-cron |
Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn Gerlach Lovell, Jim's wife Jean Speegle Howard (Ron Howard's mother) as Blanche Lovell, Jim's mother Mary Kate Schellhardt as Barbara Lovell, Jim's older daughter Max Elliott Slade as James "Jay" Lovell, Jim's older son Emily Ann Lloyd as Susan Lovell, Jim's younger daughter Miko Hughes as Jeffrey Lovell, Jim's younger son Rance Howard (Ron Howard's father) as the Lovell family minister Tracy Reiner as Mary Haise, Fred's wife Michele Little as Jane Conrad Cameos:
Jim Lovell appears as Captain Leland Kirkemo of the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima; Howard had intended to make him an admiral, but Lovell himself, having retired as a captain, chose to appear in his actual rank (and wearing his own Navy uniform). Marilyn Lovell appears among the spectators during the launch sequence. Jeffrey Kluger appears as a television reporter. Horror film director Roger Corman, a mentor of Howard, appears as a congressman being given a VIP tour by Lovell of the Vehicle Assembly Building, as it had become something of a tradition for Corman to make a cameo appearance in his protégés' films. CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite appears in archive news footage and can be heard in newly recorded announcements, some of which he edited himself to sound more authentic. Cheryl Howard (Ron Howard's wife) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's eldest daughter) as uncredited background performers in the scene where the astronauts wave goodbye to their families.
== Production ==
=== Development === The movie rights to Jim Lovell's book Lost Moon were being shopped to potential buyers before it was written. He stated that his first reaction was that Kevin Costner would be a good choice to play him.
=== Pre-production === The original screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert was written with Costner in mind because of his facial similarities with Lovell. By the time Ron Howard acquired the director's position, Tom Hanks had expressed interest in doing a film based on Apollo 13. When Hanks' representative informed him that a script was being passed around he had it sent to him, and Costner's name never came up in serious discussion. Hanks was ultimately cast as Lovell because of his knowledge of Apollo and space history. Because of his interest in aviation, John Travolta asked Howard for the role of Lovell, but was politely turned down. John Cusack was offered the role of Fred Haise but turned it down, and the role went to Bill Paxton. Brad Pitt was offered the role of Jack Swigert, but also turned it down in favor of Seven, so the role went to Kevin Bacon. Howard invited Gary Sinise to read for any of the characters, and Sinise chose Ken Mattingly. After Hanks had been cast and construction of the spacecraft sets had begun, John Sayles rewrote the script. While planning the film, Howard decided that every shot would be original and that no mission footage would be used. The spacecraft interiors were constructed by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center's Space Works, which also restored the Apollo 13 Command Module. Two individual Lunar Modules and two Command Modules were constructed for filming. Composed of some original Apollo materials, they were built so that different sections were removable, which allowed filming to take place inside them. Space Works also built modified Command and Lunar Modules for filming inside a Boeing KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft, and the pressure suits worn by the actors, which are exact reproductions of those worn by the Apollo astronauts, right down to the detail of being airtight. When suited up with their helmets locked in place, the actors were cooled by and breathed air pumped into the suits, as in actual Apollo suits. The Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center consisted of two control rooms on the second and third floors of Building 30 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. NASA offered the use of the control room for filming, but Howard declined, opting instead to make his own replica. Production designer Michael Corenblith and set decorator Merideth Boswell were in charge of the construction of the Mission Control set at Universal Studios. It was equipped with giant rear-screen projection capabilities, and a complex set of computers with individual video feeds to all the flight controller stations. The actors playing the flight controllers could communicate with each other on a private audio loop. The Mission Control room built for the film was on the ground floor. One NASA employee, a consultant for the film, said the set was so realistic that he would leave at the end of the day and look for the elevator before he remembered he was not in Mission Control. The recovery ship USS Iwo Jima had been scrapped by the time the film was made, so her sister ship, New Orleans, was used instead. To prepare for their roles in the film, Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon all attended the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. While there, astronauts Jim Lovell and David Scott, commander of Apollo 15, did actual training exercises with the actors inside a simulated Command Module and Lunar Module. The actors were also taught about each of the 500 buttons, toggles, and switches used to operate the spacecraft. The actors then traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston where they flew in the KC-135 to simulate weightlessness in outer space. Each member of the cast performed extensive research for the project to provide an authentic story. Technical adviser Scott was impressed with their efforts, stating that each actor was determined to make every scene technically correct, word for word. In Los Angeles, Ed Harris and all the actors portraying flight controllers enrolled in a Flight Controller School led by Gerry Griffin, an Apollo 13 flight director, and flight controller Jerry Bostick. The actors studied audiotapes from the mission, reviewed hundreds of pages of NASA transcripts, and attended a crash course in physics. Reportedly, Pete Conrad expressed interest in appearing in the film.
=== Filming ===