Moon (2009) - Behind the scenes at Shepperton Studios

Moon premiered in early 2009 at the Sundance film Festival and later that year saw general release in the United States and the United Kingdom. Co-written and directed by Duncan Jones the film stars Sam Rockwell as Lunar Industries astronaut Sam Bell who is nearing the end of a three year mission on the far side of the moon.

Since its release Moon has attracted a small cult following, this is in part attributable to the use of model miniature effects rather than the more modern approach of creating the effects digitally. Director Duncan Jones worked closely with designer Gavin Rothery and Bill Pearson (Alien, Outland) to create the model miniatures required. An outstanding team was assembled by Bill to build the miniatures and the galleries below offer an exciting and in depth look behind the scenes at Shepperton Studios during the production of the movie, both in the workshop and on the model stage.

The Moon model team: Model unit supervisor - Bill Pearson, Model shop supervisor - Steve Howarth, Senior model makers - John Lee, Chris Hayes, Model makers - Richard St. Clair, Ron Hone, Peter Lee.

The images in these galleries are courtesy Steve Howarth, Chris Hayes & John Lee and are reproduced here with their permission - Thanks guys!

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In February 2014 The Prop Gallery visited Bill Pearson's workshop at Shepperton Studios where he was reunited with a number of the original filming miniatures he and his model team created for the film. We took the opportunity to ask Bill some questions about his time on the production of Moon. The full interview can be found below.

Click here for our selction of original production used Moon items, available to purchase now.