1.  What year did you get the idea for TRIP TO THE MOON? The idea of TRIP TO THE MOON came to me from the book of Jules Verne, entitled : From the earth to the moon and round the moon. In this work the human people could not attain the moon, turned round it, and came back to earth, having, in fact, missed their trip. I then imagined, in using the process of Jules Verne (gun and shell) to attain the moon, in order to be able to compose a number of original and amusing fairy pictures outside and inside the moon, and to show some monsters, inhabitants of the moon, in adding one or two artistical effects (women representings stars, comets, etc.) (snow effect, bottom of the sea, etc).
2.  What year did you start the TRIP TO THE MOON? Month? Year? TRIP TO THE MOON was begun in May 1902.
3.  When was the negative of TRIP TO THE MOON finished? The negative was fïnished in August 1902.
4.  When were the first prints of TRIP TO THE MOON, released in France? The first prints were sold in France, the same month, August 1902.
5.  When was the first released in the United States of America? I don’t know exactly when they were sold in U.S.A. (probably one or two months after). As soon as the first pictures were forwarded to U.S.A., probably through commission agents, they were copied (countertyped) and sold in large number, by Edison and Lubin of Philadelphia, perhaps also by some others, for the number of copies sold in America was enormous relatively to the number printed in my laboratory.
6.  What was the probable cost of the production? The cost was about 10.000 francs, sum relatively high for the time, caused specially by the mechanical sceneries and principally the cost of the cardboard and canvas costumes made for the selenites, or moon inhabitants, knees, heads, feet, all these articles being made specially and consequently expensive. I made myself the models, sculpted in terracotta, and the plaster moulding, and the costumes were made by a special masks manufacturer accustomed to mould cardboard.
7.  Was this subject copyrighted in the U.S.A.? The subject was not copyrighted in U.S.A. It is why it was such copied everywhere, and it is also the reason why I open an office in N.Y. In order to have my following films copyrighted, and an agent (my brother) in U.S.A. for preventing, as much as possible, the piratery.
8.  If so, please give date and number if possible? No dates, the film having not been copyrighted.
9.  If possible name star or other notable features of TRIP TO THE MOON. When I made TRIP TO THE MOON, there was not yet “Stars” amongst the artists, their name was never known nor written on bills or advertisements. The film was named Starfilm, and the name Méliès, itself, did not appear on the screen though I performed the principal characters. The people employed in TRIP TO THE MOON was entirely acrobats, girls and singers coming from music halls, the theatrical actors having not yet accepted to play in cinema films, as they considered the motion picture as much as below the theatre. They came only later, when they knew that music hall people gained more money in performing films then themselves in playing in theatres for about 300 francs a month, and such was generally the case for most of them.

In the cinema, they could gain more than the double. 2 years after my office was, every night, full of theatrical people coming for asking to be engaged. I remember that in TRIP TO THE MOON, the Moon (the woman in a crescent) was Bleuette Bernon, music hall singer, the stars were ballet girls, from théâtre du Châtelet and the men (principal ones) Victor André, of Cluny theatre, Delpierre, Farjaux, Kelm, Brunnet, music hall singers and myself, the Selenites were acrobates from Folies Bergère.

I think to have replied all what you want to know, will give more details of wanted by you.

Georges Méliès.