Moon

Now that his first feature has been released to acclaim, it may be time for journalists to stop mentioning Duncan Jones's famous father [ed: it's David Bowie]. Moon is worth the attention in its own right: a return to the ace design work and thoughtful storytelling of classic 70s sci-fi, with a skilled central turn from Sam Rockwell as the loneliest man in space. He's the sole human caretaker on a lunar mining plant, but towards the end of a three-year contract he's starting to get a bit frayed, with only in-house robot Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey) to talk to. Just when he thinks he's lost it, however, he finds he has company.

"We'd been talking about sci-fi films from the era of Silent Running, Outland and Ridley Scott's Alien, which were all about blue-collar people surviving in space, so it really made sense that I write something like that for Sam," reflects Jones. "I knew I had to give him a challenge he couldn't turn down, so I started thinking about having him play multiple parts."

The film's extensive model work ties it in even more with the movies of the 70s. "There's a depth to the look that you get with models that you just can't get with CGI," says Jones. ‘We put together a team of old-timers at Shepperton, including one lovely old feller who'd worked on the original R2-D2. These chaps don't get much opportunity to work any more."

Moon is a portrait of a man slowly crushed by isolation and a home life painfully distant back on Earth. Part of that comes from a long-distance relationship with a girlfriend in Korea, but Jones's time studying in Texas provided its own slice of character-building pain.

"Being a hopeless romantic, I followed my girlfriend at the time to Vanderbilt [University, Nashville], where, obviously, we broke up a couple of months later. I still finished my three years, even though I felt very isolated. Funnily enough, my dad gave me this ancient Celtic chain I'm wearing just now, which has always meant a lot to me. It makes me feel a bit more settled."

You get the sense that Joneses senior and junior have a pretty strong bond. They made little stop-frame movies on Super-8 together when Duncan was still a nipper called Zowie (since thankfully amended), and the fact that dad had a pirated U-Matic copy of Star Wars made him King of the Geeks among his primary-school classmates. Later, visiting the huge sets for Jim Henson's Labyrinth planted a seed.

Now that he's made his mark as a director, Jones is open about the attitudes he's faced along the way. "Expectations are so much higher. People like to have a go simply because of who I am, but I'm 38 now, so I'm not going to take offence in the same way that a 20 year old might. I know my dad's proud that I've done it on my own, and I'm happy with that." Trevor Johnston

Moon screens from 8 Oct.

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