Introducing: Duncan Jones

Duncan Jones in Park City for the Sundance premiere of Moon
Zowie! … Duncan Jones at the Sundance film festival earlier this year. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters/Corbis

When your father is famous for dressing up in spangly suits and singing about insect life on a nearby planet, it's no surprise having a love of sci-fi and a yen to make a film about the moon. Nor, perhaps, is it a surprise that Duncan Jones, who was named Zowie Bowie at birth, has taken a more low-key approach to extraterrestrial matters than his father, and to life in general. He is shy of media attention and proud that he hasn't relied on the Bowie name - his accomplished debut feature Moon is released on 17 July.

Jones was born to David Bowie and his first wife Angela 38 years ago. He grew up in New York, Switzerland, Japan and Australia. He read philosophy at American universities and wrote a thesis on artificial intelligence before attending the London Film School. His father tried to nudge him towards a music career but he preferred films, being on the Labyrinth set and later learning the ropes from Tony Scott.

Jones directed commercials - the most eye-catching, for French Connection, was called the "kung fu lesbian advert" - before tackling a feature-length film. Moon stars Sam Rockwell as the lonely supervisor of a helium-3 mine on the dark side of our satellite who starts seeing apparitions towards the end of his three-year shift. It pays its dues to Kubrick and Tarkovsky and was received warmly at Sundance. Next for Jones is Mute, a sci-fi thriller set in a future Berlin.