Hi there and welcome to yet another episode of Next Best Adaptation, where we discussed the source

materials for a given year's potential adapted screenplay contenders. Previously, we

tackle the Incredibles 2, Boy Erased and Beautiful Boy. Now, as you chose, we are doing the source material for Damien Chazelle's

new Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, also called First Man, written by James R. Hansen. And this book was,

how many pages long, KT? About 700, roughly. Yeah, so this book was so long it would make George R. Martin Blush, which is why there

were only two of us who completed it to be here today to talk about the source material.

Up front, we have both also seen the film,. We'll be discussing kind of how we felt it translated in an adaptation.

I'm sure Katie and I will talk about things we might have liked to see show up

and maybe things we didn't think were necessary,

but we're going to primarily discuss the book's own merits as a book.

So, Katie, give me your two cents on James R. Hanson's first man.

Well, it's a very thorough biography.

We'll say it.

We'll say it like that.

That's a nice way to put it.

And obviously, you know, he already had a history of writing books about, you know, big players in the aviation industry. That's how he got Neil Armstrong to accept this because Armstrong had turned down every other biography request. And I think he does a great job at being thorough and giving you all the details.

For someone who wants to know all the planes that Armstrong flew, how every single flight of his went, what he did in high school, like, this will give you all of that detail.

But if you're more interested in the big events in his life, this might be a little too much.

But I liked it.

I'm really into space history.

And so for the most part, I found it interesting.

And once you actually get to NASA and he's doing his astronaut training, then it's pretty enjoyable.

...