APOLLO 18: A SCI-FI SUSPENSE THRILLER

APOLLO 18, the Sci-fi space suspense film, distributed by The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films, details the encounter of alien life form in a Watergate style cover up.

Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Michele Wolkoff and Ron Schmidt, APOLLO 18 brings to the screen the premise of a manned NASA space mission gone seriously bad and with it ramifications that would gravely injure a budding space program, destroy hope in a people already reeling from societal changes and force the need for cover-up.

APOLLO 18, written by Brian Miller, begins as one would expect with NASA astronauts depicting the known emotions, exhilaration, awe, amazement, associated with others who have completed the same mission and the annexation of the moon with the planting of the American Flag.

The APOLLO 18 Astronauts, played by Christopher Warren and Lloyd Owen, appear to have landed safely, taken the first steps toward mission completion and were in constant communication with Houston. Apparently, as APOLLO 18 progresses, from the dark side of the moon something or a group of unknowns begin to reclaim the moon or defend their homeland, first by destruction of the flag, followed by physical aggression, shooting projectiles strong enough to damage the helmet visor, and finally an alien like virus that penetrates the spacesuits and embeds itself under the skin causing mental duress and ultimately death.

Stanton T. Friendman, world renowned nuclear physicist, author and noted authority on UFO existence and investigations, had this to say, "I'm not saying that this footage doesn't exist. I'm saying it's possible that there's a whole classified side to this and that it would make sense. I allow for that possibility."

Speaking with William "Bill" Birnes, the publisher of UFO Magazine and creator of the popular television series UFO HUNTERS, on the plausibility of alien or unknown life form existing he offered clear, persuasive arguments that leave one agreeing with the possibility of intelligent life form existing. The idea, of course, is that even with the images supplied by The Hubble Telescope showing the furthest points in the universe, it is still so vast and undefined in scope that the idea of intelligent life, unknown to our civilization, existing in some form somewhere, is not unreasonable.

Birnes, a NYU scholar and author-collaborator of multiple serial killer biographies, had this to say, "Existence of life on MARS is more than theoretical. The fact surrounding life on MARS was proven millions of years ago when researchers found chunks of rocks originating from MARS in Antarctica containing bacteria. In reality, we are all decedents of Martins and not apes."

Clearly an intellectual with both a Ph.D and JD, Birnes has well thought out and honestly, reasonable responses to questions designed for multiple purposes including determining the depth of study and information available.

As we spoke on the idea of communicating with an unknown life form and the extent of the DOD's attempt to utilize every known language to establish communications, such as Roland Emmerich presented in the film INDEPENDENCE DAY, using code, lights, sound, dead and active languages, his response was again easily understood, stating, "I don't think that active communication is through spoken language per se or a written language per se. If I had to take a guess it would either through sound, tones, or colors. "Another language," he continued, "is Mathematics. Mathematics is a universal language. If you are a culture that has developed space craft you've dealt with geometric shapes, triangle, circles and squares. That [geometry] stretches across the universe. Maybe the names are different but the symbols and shapes remain the same."

Any life form unknown to our civilization, whether that equates to beings able to live, breathe, operate and defend their homeland, country or nation, in the upper levels of the atmosphere or not, is obviously the subject of countless debates and hypothesis. According to Birnes, "We're not talking about an insecticide machines such as depicted in BATTLE LOS ANGELES." As far as film, he continued, "Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND I think is a more accurate portrayal in that there is active communication."

As we spoke of dealing with invasion or aggression, Birnes added, "The model is no different than it has been throughout our history." Indicating dealing with alien or unknown life form is as logical as the Dutch purchasing Manhattan Island and negotiating The Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon. "The model," Birnes stated, "remains the same. Find out what they want and negotiate a deal."

It's just figuring out what "they" want.

APOLLO 18 opens in theaters everywhere September 2, 2011.