Ron Howard: Initially, when the idea for Apollo 13 came to me, I didn’t remember the mission very well. And then, as I looked at the facts, I had a vague recollection of it. I always believed in the space program and the spirit of exploration, but I was not a sort of a space junkie. Initially, I thought, “Wow! This would be a great challenge: to try to recreate for the audience the experience of going into space.” And it’s a very dramatic story, and that would be interesting. But I was looking at it more as a sort of cinematic exercise, you know, a great learning experience. However, as I began to learn more about the mission, I began to see that it was, in fact, even more dramatic than I realized. And, more importantly, as I began to meet the individuals involved — not only the astronauts, but also a number of the mission control people who were involved in the rescue — I began to see that this was really a great story of human triumph. A very emotional story and that you could be very, very truthful. And yet, it was a real opportunity to sort of celebrate what human beings are capable of. So my whole point of view about the movie shifted very early in the process. But it was a dramatic shift.