Moonshot

Logline:
When a maverick Neil Armstrong goes off-script during the moon landing, he uncovers a hidden truth that threatens to unravel history — forcing NASA into a desperate cover-up as the world watches.

Synopsis:
Moonshot is a standalone short and the first installment of Collective Unknown, a grounded sci-fi anthology about hidden truths and buried memories. This chapter reframes the moon landing, recasting Neil Armstrong as more West Coast daredevil instead of Midwest boy scout. But the real twist isn’t Neil — it’s what he finds buried beneath the surface.

Blending irreverence, speculative horror, and cinematic tension, Moonshot peels back the myth to find something stranger, and maybe more human, underneath.

Winner: The New York Science Fiction and Horror Film Festival
Winner: Austin After Dark Film Festival
Finalist: Glendale International Film Festival (Glendale, CA)
Finalist: Filmmatic Sci-Fi/Fantasy Awards
Semi-Finalist: Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (Academy Award–Qualifying Festival)
Semi-Finalist: DIFF-Storyline (DaVinci Writers' Corner)
Quarter-Finalist: FilmQuest
Finalist: Austin Under the Stars
Finalist: International Indie Film & Screenplay Festival

  • Michael H. Moore
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Short Script
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Alt-History, Dark Comedy, Psychological Thriller, Drama, Adventure
  • Number of Pages:
    16
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The New York Science Fiction and Horror Film Festival
    New York, NY
    September 19, 2025
    Winner Best Short Screenplay
  • Austin After Dark Film Festival
    Austin, TX
    October 18, 2025
    Winner Best Short Screenplay Dark Sci-Fi
  • Glendale International Film Festival
    Glendale, CA
    September 25, 2025
    Finalist Best Short Screenplay
  • Filmmatic Sci-Fi/Fantasy Awards
    Los Angeles, CA
    November 16, 2025
    Finalist Best Screenplay
  • Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival
    Providence, RI
    August 5, 2025
    Semi-Finalist Best Short Screenplay
  • DIFF-Storyline (DaVinci Writers' Corner)
    Los Angeles, CA
    October 10, 2025
    Semi-Finalist Best Screenplay
  • FilmQuest Festival
    Provo, UT
    October 23, 2025
    Quarter-Finalist Best Short Screenplay
  • Austin Under The Stars Film Festival
    Ausint, TX
    September 13, 2025
    Finalist Best Short Screenplay
  • International Indie Film & Screenplay Festival
    Paris, France
    September 8, 2025
    Finalist Best Short Screenplay
Writer Biography - Michael H. Moore

Michael Moore began writing in May 2025, having now completed 9 original short scripts in five months. His debut shorts have earned close to a 70% placement rate and 33% finalist/win rate across all submissions, with 8 festivals recognizing multiple scripts in the same competition. Notable recognitions include FilmQuest (Semi-Finalist; Quarter-Finalist), Flickers' Rhode Island (RIIFF) (2x Semi-Finalist), DIFF-Storyline (DaVinci Writers' Corner) (2x Finalist; 1 Semi-Finalist), HorrorFest International (Semi-Finalist), Glendale International Film Festival (2x Finalist), Vancouver Horror Show (Semi-Finalist; Quarter-Finalist), Filmmatic TV Pilot Awards (Semi-Finalist), and Wins at The New York Sci-Fi and Horror Festival and Zepstone International.

Collective Unknown is his anthology featuring emotionally resonant short scripts that explore buried memory, recursion, and the hidden artifacts that echo across time. It blends sci-fi with dark comedy and psychological tension, with philosophical undercurrents — at times reimagining mythologized events in uncanny new lights.

Affect Protocol is the second anthology series in development, forcing us to confront whether emotion and empathy are more beneficial or threatening in a world built on systematic and technological control. Identity, class systems, and weaponization or erasure of feeling all get examined through vastly different sci-fi landscapes.

Wrench Kings is his original long form grounded sci-fi series in development. It's set in a post-automation future ruled by labor/working class guilds rather than wealth, exploring a world rebuilt by the very people society once discarded — scavengers, machinists, growers, healers, and builders — after artificial intelligence failed the former ruling class.

As a newer voice in this space, his goal is to share work that engages both thoughtful genre audiences and industry professionals looking for fresh, emotionally intelligent storytelling.

Drawing from lived experience and thematic curiosity, Michael’s work interrogates what it means to stay human, and what or who decides. His stories are cinematic, layered, and emotionally restrained — designed to linger long after the final frame.

Add Writer Biography
Writer Statement

I write to explore the systems dictating our lives, whether shaped by nature or humanity. Our world's contradictions, values, unknowns…and quiet horrors. If a work leaves you unsettled or questioning what it means to be human, it's doing its job.

As a newer voice in this space, my goal is to share work that engages both thoughtful genre audiences and industry professionals looking for fresh, emotionally intelligent storytelling.