Tate Taylor will direct In The Event Of A Moon Disaster, which FilmNation is producing and will sell internationally.

Taylor, currently in post on the James Brown biopic Get On Up that Universal will release on August 1, will direct from Mike Jones’ Black List screenplay.

FilmNation developed the script about a speech written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential speechwriter William Safire, who died in 2009.

The speech was prepared in 1969 for President Nixon in the event that the ultimately successful Apollo 11 mission would fail. The film imagines an alternate history.

Casting is underway and the producers have earmarked an early 2015 start of production.

“Tate is an incredibly talented artist in every sense, and we have been actively searching for the right project to collaborate on,” said FilmNation evp of production Karen Lunder, who originally brought the project to Taylor and his production partner John Norris. “We’re thrilled to have found it with Moon Disaster.”

CAA represents Taylor and Jones.