Duncan Bowie aka Zowie Bowie wrote and directed debut feature , ` ` ' '' Sci - fi thriller made for only $ 5 million , starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon . To keep costs down , Jones used model miniatures for the exterior shots of the moon base and the lunar buggy that Bell drives across the cold regolith to tend to the monstrous Helium-3 harvesting machines traversing the planet . Bowie 's retro look borrows heavily from sci - fi classics like Ridley Scott 's ` ` Alien '' and was screened at NASA for scientists researching Helium-3 mining .
Duncan Bowie aka Zowie Bowie wrote and directed debut feature , ` ` ' '' Sci - fi thriller made for only $ 5 million , starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon . Bowie 's retro look borrows heavily from sci - fi classics like Ridley Scott 's ` ` Alien '' and was screened at NASA for scientists researching Helium-3 mining .