Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum Pair Up for the First Time in “Fly Me to the Moon” First Look (Exclusive)

'Fly Me to the Moon,' directed by Greg Berlanti, is in theaters July 12

Opposites attract in Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum's new lunar love story.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at Fly Me to the Moon, a dramedy starring Johansson and Tatum set during NASA's historic 1969 moon landing mission.

She plays Kelly Jones, part of the marketing team helping rehab NASA's public image, and he is launch director Cole Davis. "When the President deems the mission too important to fail," a synopsis teases, "Jones is directed to stage a fake moon landing as backup and the countdown truly begins."

Johansson, 39, tells PEOPLE she didn't know Tatum, 43, before making Fly Me to the Moon, despite having "many friends in common."

"Channing is such an easy-going actor, good spirited and professional. Falling in love with him onscreen was pretty easy. He’s such a likable person," she says, adding of their characters, "Kelly and Cole are such opposites. It was fun to play that dynamic with Channing."

The actress, who is also a producer on the film, describes her character Kelly as a "very modern woman living in a time where women were often underestimated."

"She uses that to her advantage and is always a few steps ahead," adds Johansson.

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The Fly Me to the Moon cast also features Nick Dillenburg, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Donald Elise Watkins, Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson. As Johansson remembers, they "all just laughed a ton and had a great time. It was a total pleasure to be onset with all that good energy."

The film is directed by Greg Berlanti (Love, Simon) and written by Rose Gilroy from the story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn.

"The inspiration for this story," Berlanti, 51, tells PEOPLE, "was to craft a big, fun, smart original movie around whether or not the American government could have possibly faked the Apollo 11 moon landing, which is still the most-watched live TV event in the history of the world and has since become one of the most talked about conspiracy theories."

The director explains that recreating the moon landing (and the methods in which it could possibly have been "faked" at the time) was "most challenging" — and "required a set the size of baseball field."

That, plus "months of construction and design work with all of our department heads, wire work with stunt actors, lighting work with lights from that era and a movement coach working with our 'fake astronauts' to match step for step Buzz [Aldrin] and Neil [Armstrong's] first historic walk on the moon."

"They are some of the most famous images in history," he says, "and we needed to match them completely — but in a way they could have only done in 1969."

But, says Berlanti, even with "rockets going off and moon walks in the film, the real event is watching all of these incredible actors together."

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"Scarlett and Channing had never done a film together, and I'm sure audiences will want them to do many more after this one," he says. "They're each individually a dream, both personally and professionally. They have the rarest of gifts with comedy and drama."

"Watching them act together was like watching two great rockstars do a duet for the first time," continues Berlanti. "From rehearsal through the end of shooting, working with the two of them was one of the great pinch-me moments of my life."

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Johansson says Fly Me to the Moon is appealing because it is "totally original."

"It’s not derivative of anything else, it doesn’t follow a formula," she says. "I think audiences haven’t been offered a big-idea movie that is both funny and poignant and original in a long time, and they are hungry for that. The film is totally entertaining and fresh. I’m very proud of it for its newness and scope."

Fly Me to the Moon, an Apple Original Film, will be in theaters, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, on July 12, before later streaming on Apple TV+.

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