TOMORROWLAND : Looking to the future

Another Disneyland attraction gets the blockbuster film treatment. After more than a year and a half of secrecy shrouding the making of Tomorrowland, director Brad Bird, along with co-writer Damon Lindelof and star George Clooney, unveiled the first footage at New York Comic-Con. As predicted, it’s a sci-fi film but that’s only the tip of the futuristic spire...

DISCOVERY IS KEY

Citing their shared love of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Damon Lindelof says that classic film “is essentially a discovery movie, and this [film] is about seeing something and being inspired by it.” Bird agrees with the inspirational tone. “[Tomorrowland] is about being implanted with a vision and pursuing that vision, and that’s kind of how the movie takes off,” he smiles.

CASEY ON THE CASE

The teaser reveals Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), the troubled heroine, who discovers a mysterious pin that instantly transports her (albeit briefly) to Tomorrowland. Robertson teases that Casey is roughly 17, and a high-school student, adding, “I’m a dreamer and I’m recruited by someone to explore Tomorrowland.” Lindelof says the heart of the film revolves around the fact that “Casey saw this thing, she’s not entirely sure that she saw it, she wants to know more about and she’s going to need help in order to find it.”

THE HELP

Casey’s reluctant ally is a bit of a crank named Frank Walker, played by George Clooney. What exactly compelled Clooney to head up a genre film? Brad Bird. “The beautiful thing is that Brad has a real vision of the film he wants to make,” enthuses Clooney. “It was really fun for all of us to play in this giant toy box with him. We were all over the world.”

ROBOTS IN DISGUISE

A NYCC panel exclusive clip showed Frank initially unwilling to explain the pin’s powers to Casey, but a harrowing onslaught on his home by relentless robots in human skin forces them to work together to escape their automaton attackers. Who sent them? No idea, but the attack seems to convince Frank to let her in on the secrets of Tomorrowland.

HUGH LAURIE’S INVOLVED

All we know thus far is that Laurie plays a bloke named David Nix. That, and that the actor got involved because Bird and Lindelof, “asked if I would hear a story they had to tell. They described to me an attitude, a way of thinking about life, and specifically about the future, that simply never occurred to me before. I left thinking, these guys are onto something really exceptional, incredibly powerful and uplifting... and I’m not an easily uplifted person because I’m English. A month later I got to read the script. I’m still fascinated to know how it ends...” TB

ETA | 22 MAY 2015 Tomorrowland opens this year.