20 facts you might not know about 'Apollo 13'

In 1994, the book “Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13” was released. It was a collaboration between author Jeffrey Kluger and astronaut Jim Lovell. Lovell was on board Apollo 13, so needless to say he had a story to tell, one that struck a chord with people.

Before “Lost Moon” was even published, its movie rights were being shopped around. Lovell had an actor in mind that he wanted to play him. That would be Kevin Costner, though reportedly Costner was not considered for the film by director Ron Howard.

Hanks, who had just won two Best Actor Oscars in a row, is a big fan of space exploration and makes total sense for the role of Lovell. However, he wasn’t the first choice either. Reportedly John Travolta was offered the role, but turned it down.

Hanks’ “Forrest Gump” costar Sinise had options available to him. Howard told the actor he could choose the role he wanted to read for. He went with Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who is left behind due to contracting German measles, and got the role.

Harris either has an affinity for making movies about real-life NASA events, or he’s just right for that kind of role. The actor plays Gene Krantz in “Apollo 13.” Back in 1983, Harris also played one of the original astronauts — John Glenn — in “The Right Stuff.”

Ron isn’t afraid of nepotism, apparently. His brother Clint has a role in the movie, which is typical of Ron’s films. On top of that, though, Howard gave cameos to his father, mother, wife and his daughter. Of course, it wouldn’t be the last time his daughter Bryce Dallas appeared in a movie.

Like so many before him, Howard got his break in film thanks to Roger Corman. It’s Corman who gave him a chance to direct his first movie, and Corman who helped show him the ropes. The legendary producer is loved by his protégés, who often reward him with cameos. Indeed, Corman has a cameo as a congressman in the movie.

The director did not want to use real mission footage at all in the making of his film. He was determined to produce a movie that consisted entirely of original content. Howard wanted every shot of the movie to be his own, which was not easy to do.

For the interiors of Apollo 13, the production turned to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center to build them. The actual Apollo 13 command module was also restored. Meanwhile, though NASA offered up their real Mission Control Center to be used for the movie, Howard instead had it recreated in intricate detail on a soundstage. Evidently it was so realistic one NASA consultant was looking for the elevator to leave, before remember it was a soundstage and not the actual Mission Control.

Space is a zero-gravity environment. You float in space, which is obviously not the case on Earth. How to recreate that without actually going into space? Howard used the KC-135 airplane, which is used by NASA to train astronauts to manage weightlessness. It can be flown in a fashion that can create 23 seconds of weightlessness at a time. That meant Howard and his astronaut cast had to take those flights over and over to shoot 23 seconds at a time.

Harris and the other actors playing flight controllers went to Flight Controller School to prepare for their roles. The classes were led by Gerry Griffin, who was a flight director on Apollo 13. They studied audiotapes and hundreds of pages of NASA transcripts to get ready for their performance.

Cronkite was a legend of network news, and he appears in archive footage for the movie. However, his appearance isn’t all archive. Howard had Cronkite record new audio for the film to bolster the old footage.

It’s not uncommon for big movies to have test screenings and for audience response to be gauged to assess where the film stands. Ron Howard has told a story a few times about the test screening of “Apollo 13.” While the comment cards were largely positive, one person really loathed the movie. Their problem? It was “typical Hollywood” to give the film a happy ending, because there’s no way the astronauts would have survived in real life. Obviously, somebody wasn’t up on their NASA history.

A Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks in 1995 was a good bet for success, and indeed that turned out to be the case. The movie was the number one film in the United States for three weeks and made $355 million worldwide.

When the Academy Award nominations came out, “Apollo 13” was well represented. It was nominated for nine Oscars, including acting nods for Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. What was notable, though, is the fact “Apollo 13” was nominated for Best Picture, but Howard did not get a nomination for Best Director.

“Apollo 13” didn’t take any of the big awards home at the Oscars, but it did win a couple. The movie got wins for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, a credit to its technical achievement.

“Apollo 13” is synonymous with the line “Houston, we have a problem,” which became a part of the popular lexicon. It also was number 50 on the AFI’s list of the top 100 movie quotes. However, this line slightly fudges what was actually said. Astronaut Jack Swigert said, “Okay Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” When ground control asked him to repeat, Lovell said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

One of the taglines for “Apollo 13” was “Failure is not an option.” Harris’ character of Gene Krantz also says it in the film. However, Krantz never said this in real life. It was a creation of the screenwriters.

How many movies have an audio commentary featuring an actual astronaut? “Apollo 13” does. The DVD release of the film included a commentary from Lovell and his wife Marilyn. They both speak to the factual accuracy of the movie, which they say is largely accurate save for some choices of artistic license.

In 1998, HBO released a 12-part miniseries called “From Earth to the Moon,” which tells the story of the Apollo program. It featured Howard as a producer and Hanks as executive producer. In fact, Hanks was quite hands on. He is a credited writer on a few episodes and directed the first one.