From Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) comes a new live-action Disney movie that has been completely shrouded in mystery. Until now.
At New York Comic Con today, director Bird, who co-wrote the screenplay with producer Lindelof based on a story imagined by the Lost alum and Entertainment Weekly TV critic Jeff Jensen, a panel revealed Tomorrowland, “a riveting mystery adventure” starring George Clooney and Britt Robertson (Under the Dome). Though the star-studded panel of actors and movie-makers remained tight-lipped about the film’s plot, a brief teaser trailer (embedded above) helped set the tone. In it, Robertson’s character Casey stumbles upon a magical pin that fleetingly reveals another land to her right before her eyes. Clooney’s character Frank is makes a quick cameo hinting at the story’s central theme: “What if there is a secret place where nothing is impossible, a miraculous place where you could actually change the world. Wanna go?”
The official logline goes like this: Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as “Tomorrowland.” What they must do there changes the world—and them—forever. “Tomorrowland” promises to take audiences on a thrill ride of nonstop adventures through new dimensions that have only been dreamed of.
The first Tomorrowland tease came in January 2013 when Bird tweeted out an image of a box labeled “1952;” fun fact: that was the original working title of the film. That’s the year Walt Disney launched the Imagineering division, a collection of people whose sole purpose is to come up with the fantastical concepts and designs for the Disney theme parks worldwide. The box contained all sorts of intriguing pictures, a record, and literature. The archived materials provided inspiration for the film’s story. Tomorrowland, after all, is the name of one of the theme lands at Disney parks here and abroad.
For more on Tomorrowland, hop over to EW where you’ll find an informative interview with Bird and Lindelof. Here a couple choice quotes to mull over: “What Hogwarts is to magic, Tomorrowland is to science: They are both easy to find if you are a wizard and very difficult to find if you’re a Muggle,” shares Lindelof. “Walt Disney is not a character in our movie, but he is referenced as having some involvement in this mysterious place called Tomorrowland, as a huge futurist and aficionado of space travel, rocketry, cities of the future, and space travel.” He adds, “There is a piece of technology in this pin, it’s the kind of old-school pin you would wear on your lapel, and when you make physical contact with it, you have the illusion of being physically transported to another world, and that’s how Casey gets her first glimpse of Tomorrowland. She is a Muggle who accidentally wanders across Platform 9 ¾ and sees something she probably shouldn’t have.”
Mischief Managed! Intrigued indeed! Tomorrowland hits theatres May 22, 2015.
