Moon

The part was written for Sam Rockwell from the start, though Rockwell nearly turned it down and Paddy Considine was the alternative. Duncan Jones made it as his first feature, designed in his own words to get the most out of five million dollars. He worked at Shepperton and brought in Bill Pearson, supervising model maker on Alien, to design the rovers and helium harvesters. Putting two Sams in one frame was not done with motion capture or face replacement. The Cinesite crew spent a week on a small motion control rig nicknamed Sprog; eleven clone shots were each covered in at least three or four passes, then layered together. Rockwell performed the dominant clone first and timed the second one against audio of the earlier take fed to an earwig. A stunt performer in a green stocking cap stood in for the fight. GERTY’s body was a practical prop and only the arms were made digitally, because the built arms would not pose. It premiered at Sundance, and Jones took the BAFTA for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer. A good fit if you enjoy hunting for the joins in the shots where the two Sams meet. Not for anyone who will find ninety seven minutes with one base, one robot and one face too narrow.