Universal has acquired the non-fiction book "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong" and will turn it into a film about the first person to set foot on the moon reports Variety.

NASA historian James R. Hansen got rare direct access to Armstrong, a test pilot-turned-astronaut who was so driven to reach the moon and play the role of American hero that he became known as "the Ice Commander."

Armstrong returned from the moon as one of the most famous men on Earth but didn't capitalize on it with a political career or endorsements. He reconnected with his family, shut out the world and became an intensely private man.

Nicole Perlman will write the script. She recently penned and rewrote "Challenger" about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's investigation into the 1986 Space Shuttle tragedy. Nathaniel Kahn ("My Architect") is attached to direct that project.