With the IMAX theater giant screen premiere of his 1995 film Apollo 13, Academy Award winning director Ron Howard says that's about as close to outer space as he is likely to get.
The drive to make the film was an Earth-bound fascination with space, Howard told SPACE.com. As for spending $20 million to travel to the International Space Station, Howard would prefer to leave that to more adventurous types.
"Im a storyteller. Im not really an explorer," said Howard. "What Im passionate about is telling stories in an effective way. It would be a bad allocation of my time and money."
"I dont have enough time in my life to make all the films I want to make as it is," he added.
It was his desire to tell compelling stories that attracted him to make the 1995 film Apollo 13 about the ill-fated moon mission and its harrowing escape from tragedy. The film is being re-released this month at large screen IMAX theaters.
"As a filmmaker I thought it would be really great to create a personal experience for audiences and offer them a sense of what it might have been like to be in that capsule and when the IMAX opportunity came along, that just enhanced that opportunity," Howard said.
The IMAX Corporation approached him to convert Apollo 13 to its larger format screens because of its science theme, Howard said. About half of the theaters are attached to museums, and IMAX is aware that the movie has been used in classrooms as an educational tool since its release on video.
While a child actor in the 1960s, Howard says he was fascinated with the space program, although not to the extent that he knew all the astronauts names or built the Aurora model kits. He has almost no recollection of the Apollo 13 crisis because he was filming an episode of "Gunsmoke" in a remote California desert location at the time.
Howard believes that Americans do take the space program for granted today. He finds that when people do think about NASA, they fall into two categories: they are either very proud of it, or they think its a big waste of money.
"I always hoped that the Apollo 13 movie represented the program in a positive way, and serves as a reminder of what a great accomplishment the Apollo Era was and how courageous the undertaking was," he said.
He said celebrities such as NSYNC star Lance Bass going into space could go a long way towards re-firing the publics imagination.
"I believe in a little showmanship associated with the space program. I believe when the publics imagination can be focused on space travel, I think thats a good thing," Howard said.
He supports further human space exploration, including a voyage to Mars.
"Its a complicated question on how to pay for it...But I would hate for our country to lose its lead," Howard said. "It would be great if it felt like pure exploration instead of political or military one-upmanship."
"As a species, its important for us to keep reaching. Its what we are. Its what we do. And I believe practical applications for space exploration are going to present themselves."
Back on Earth, Howard says he would like to do more space-themed movies, although he has no firm plans to do so in the near future.
"Id be hard pressed to find a more exciting story to tell than Apollo 13 ... but I continue to find space fascinating."
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