News From Brad Bird's Tomorrowland

We've got some news from Brad Bird hyper mega secret film "Tomorrowland" and they're coming from the horse's mouth as it is Georges Clooney himself who answered recently to Reddit "Ask me anything" questions. 

Although Georges Clooney declined to reveal anything about Tomorrowland plot - supposed to be "a sci-fi mystery about two teens who set off to uncover a place in time and space that they both have memories of" - he said that he's pretty much always strapped into a harness: "I'm on set and literally have a harness on right now. I was late, because right before I was hanging from about 30 feet over four different blue screens. So as we’re talking now there are all these wires and contraptions hanging off of me. It’s really, really, really good and Brad Bird is a wonderful director, and a wonderful guy with a wild imagination. And if I don’t screw it up it’ll be a terrific film. Everybody’s really good in it. Anyway, you always have to be careful what you say about these films so I don’t want to sort of ruin it by telling you that everyone dies in the end. Oops, I've said too much."

I don't think that Clooney really meant that everybody will really die at the end of Tomorrowland and it was probably a joke but here is a bit more, also interesting, about the plot - but not from Clooney this time. The official synopsis is, as we know: "Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank — jaded by disillusionment — and Casey, 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."

BUT HitFix has an exclusive scoop in the form of a very brief synopsis sent out to help assemble a cast: "A teenage girl, a genius middle-aged man (who was kicked out of Tomorrowland) and a pre-pubescent girl robot attempt to get to and unravel what happened to Tomorrowland, which exists in an alternative dimension, in order to save Earth."

AND HitFix also added: The "Tomorrowland" that they keep referring to in this break-down appears to be a place where science has blown past the world we live in, and when Frank Walker was a young man, he first encountered the promise of Tomorrowland at the 1964 World's Fair. David Nix was there, showing off his own work, and he told Walker to come back when he was older and his inventions actually worked. A girl named Athena saw great promise in 11-year-old Frank, though, and she snuck him into Tomorrowland. Eventually, Frank was discovered by Nix and thrown out, but not before learning that the girl he loved, Athena, was actually a robot.

"By the time we meet Frank in the film, he's much older, and George Clooney is set to play the part. Nix is the role that actor Hugh Laurie is signed for, and by the point the main story of the film kicks in, Nix has been the mayor of Tomorrowland for many years, and he's become rotten, corrupt. Athena, unchanged since Frank was a young man, plays a key role in the film, and the hero is a girl named Casey who has a quick scientific mind that becomes important as the story unfolds. Nix is a guy who values technical accomplishment over creative thinking, and when he throws Frank out of Tomorrowland, he's not alone. Every creative thinker is banished, allowing Nix to focus purely on aesthetics and technical advancement for its own sake.

There's interdimensional travel, human-looking robots, and a quest for revenge on the part of Frank. He is a bitter adult, and the film is not just about Casey's adventure, but also about Frank rediscovering the kid he used to be. It sounds like young Frank actually plays a decent-sized role in the film, so we may see both timelines play out to some extent."

Well, if Hit Fix is right it sounds that Tomorrowland will have a great story, which i'm sure it will have anyway as the movie is in good hands - Brad Bird hands.

Picture: copyright Disney

Alfonso Cuaron's " Gravity" Review

I just watched today Alfonso Cuaron's highly awaited movie "Gravity" and, boy, it's a 
more than a movie, it's an experience... you probably never seen a movie like that!
Although all of the action happen in space above Earth don't expect anything like Stanley Kubrick's "2001, A Space Odyssey" which still remain unbeatable because of its metaphysics dimension. But Gravity is still fascinating and a fantastic movie, really!

Georges Clooney and Sandra Bullock are playing in "Gravity" the two main characters  in what is a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (Clooney). But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes because the Russian have blown up one of their satellite and a chain react happen. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone in Space... 

Gravity is definitely a "Houston, we have a problem" movie and i strongly recommend  if you can to watch it just like i did on an IMAX screen as it looks gorgeous with the IMAX definition, and even in 3D. That said, as good as Gravity is, my only problem was a personal one and it is Sandra Bullock. Don't get me wrong, she's perfectly fine in Gravity but just put her and me in the same room during 48 hours, and i know it'll be a carnage! It took me some time to understood why and now i know it's related to her personal type of "energy" - inside energy i mean. Not to mention that i always found her not that good in emotional scenes. But, again, this is just personal and there is a lot of people who like her, as you probably do, so don't pay attention to this.

Gravity's filming and photography is absolutely stunning and it's hard to escape to the "how did they did it?" question even if we know that actors were in front of plenty of green screens all along the shooting. But the result is something of an infinite beauty and probably the only film since Kubrick's 2001 that gives you the feeling of what is deep space above Earth. Surprisingly, considering all what happen in Gravity, the story and action is pretty believable. Sure, in real life you'll need a lot of both bad luck and good luck to go through all this, but the story works well and i won't be 
surprised if Gravity  was one of this fall biggest success.

But there is one person who will both love and hate the movie, and it's James Cameron. Cameron, just like anyone will be stunned by Gravity and Alfonso Cuaron's brilliant directing but i'm damn' sure that he will be "green with envy" as it is exactly the kind of "space" movie that Cameron would have love to direct! And because - just like Stanley Kubrick and David Lean - Alfonso Cuaron practice - consciously or unconsciously - "the policy of the scortched earth" - meaning that when he does a movie about a particular subject nobody can come after him and do a better one on the same subject - then James Cameron himself can forget about doing a movie where action would take place right above Earth ( but Cameron has plenty of others things to care about with his Avatar sequels  so it's no big problem for him ).

Editing: A good friend of mine just told me that Cameron declared recently "It's the movie about Space that i always wanted to see!"

At the time i'm writing this review it's still Sunday in the U.S, and if you don't know what to do this Sunday, just go out to watch Gravity. If you start to have enough of these superheroes movies and are in lack of real good movies then you should like Gravity. And by the way, just to create a link with Disney - although i should say Pixar - there is even a scene in Gravity which will remind you a famous scene from Wall-E - but i don't tell you which one! Go ahead, go out of your home and watch Gravity today, it takes place in real time, last 87 minutes in "space" with you on the edge of your seat! 

Here is Gravity's extended trailer.

 


Picture and video: copyright Warner Bros