‘Apollo 18’ and ‘Dark Moon’ ‘may clash’

Timur Bekmambetov

Timur Bekmambetov’s next science fiction project reportedly follows an uncannily similar premise to a separate film being developed by Warner Bros.

Bekmambetov’s Apollo 18 is currently in the middle of production with director Trevor Caewood, having been picked up by the Weinstein Company for release in cinemas at some point in 2011.

However, Coming Soon reports that the “found footage” film, which tells an alien conspiracy story about the cancelled NASA mission, follows a very similar story to Warner Bros’ upcoming film Dark Moon.

Warner Bros’ offering also revolves around the popular “found footage” narrative, and focuses on a conspiracy surrounding the similarly-cancelled Apollo 17 mission.

If Dark Moon is also released in 2011, it could follow the familiar trend of opposing studios releasing similar films close together, most notably with Armageddon and Deep Impact in 1998.