Ryan Gosling is to reunite with his La La Land director Damien Chazelle in a biopic about astronaut Neil Armstrong, in which Gosling will play the first man on the moon.

The 36 year old actor is to play Armstrong in First Man, a project that will begin shooting in 2017. He’s apparently been attached to project for more than a whole year, with rumours beginning in December 2015, but he’s only recently penned a deal for the role.

Josh Singer, an Oscar winner for his script for Spotlight last year, wrote the movie based on James Hansen’s biography ‘First Man: A Life of Neil A. Armstrong’. It is set to centre around Armstrong primarily, but will also tackle the lengthy endeavours that he, NASA and the country had to go through to put a man on the moon in the sixties.

Ryan GoslingRyan Gosling has signed up to play Neil Armstrong in a biopic

Armstrong served as a navy pilot during the Second World War, joining the precursor to NASA as a test pilot and engineer. His first space mission was Gemini 8 in 1962, during which he completed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space. In 1969, he famously became the first person to walk on the moon as part of Apollo 11.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will produce the drama through their Temple Hill Entertainment. Their credits include the Twilight and Maze Runner franchises, and The Fault In Our Stars.

Isaac Klausner will executive produce, with the source material’s author Hansen attached to co-produce. Universal’s vice-president of production Sara Scott will oversee the project for the studio.

Chazelle, who directed the acclaimed Whiplash two years ago, worked with Gosling this year on La La Land which has emerged as one of the front-runners for big prizes as the awards season rolls around. It has already bagged seven Golden Globe nominations.

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