Operation Avalanche
2016 · Canada, United States · 94 min
- Director
- Matt Johnson
- Screenplay
- Matt Johnson
- Producer
- Matthew Miller, Matt Johnson
- Music
- Jay McCarrol
- Cinematography
- Jared Raab
- Editing
- Curt Lobb
- Production company
- XYZ Films
Awards: · 1 nominations
Cast
What it is about
Late 1960s. Two CIA agents, played by director Matt Johnson and Owen Williams, infiltrate NASA posing as a documentary crew covering the Apollo program, with the aim of exposing a suspected KGB mole. The routine assignment soon pulls them into a far-fetched scheme tied to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
How it was made
Johnson and producer Matthew Miller came up with the idea on a flight home from the premiere of The Dirties (2013). Shot over 42 days from June 30, 2014, in Toronto, Houston and Washington, D.C., it was built from a loose outline of about ten pages rather than a formal script, and much of it was improvised. The NASA scenes were filmed on location under the pretext of a student documentary, and archival material was mixed with new footage while modern objects were digitally removed.
Reception and legacy
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and received generally favorable reviews. It holds a 69% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 69/100. It also earned a nomination for the International Film Festival Rotterdam audience award.
Stills
Trivia
Thrown out of Shepperton
Johnson and Raab skipped a Shepperton Studios tour to film the lot where 2001: A Space Odyssey had been shot. Security later expelled them, assuming they were paparazzi.
Real names
Many of the actors, including the five leads, used their real names and are credited at the end as Himself or Herself.
More films by Matt Johnson
BlackBerry
Nirvanna the Band the Show the MovieOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.