The first proper teaser for Disney’s mysterious Tomorrowland project is here! Brad Bird and Damon Lindeloff were on hand to answer (very few) questions, but they brought us the first teasers. And then they did us all a favor and brought us George Clooney, who has never been been to a con before.
Spoilers below for some minor details and a clip!
The teaser is out! You should watch it.
Bird and Lindelof talked about the inspiration for the project, which was excitingly hodgepodge at the start.
Though there is a certain Wizard of Oz or Narnia quality to the teaser, Bird claimed that one of the primary influences for the film was the discovery aspect to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Though many films in the current milieu use Spielberg as a touchstone, Close Encounters is not usually the first on that list, so the inspiration is intriguing to say the least.
They brought in a few of the actors: Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, and Hugh Laurie. When Laurie was asked why he came on board, he talked of a meeting he had with Bird and Lindelof about the vision they had around the future they were creating with the film. He said he left feeling more hopeful than he normally did on the subject. When asked if his character was a hero or a villain, he made some quality crazy eyes while insisting that his character was nice. (We’re onto you, Laurie.)
Britt Robertson seemed terrified to say a word (she already let something slip she wasn’t meant to in an earlier interview), but Rafferty Cassidy was charming in her insistence that the character she played was not horribly thoughtful, but definitely a good person—a good person who can do karate.
As Hugh Laurie went on about how George Clooney lies about his age, the man himself hit the stage. When he sat down, he said what probably half the audience was thinking: “The irony is not lost on me that I’m on my honeymoon, and I’m at Comic-Con.”
When it was pointed out that this was his first convention as well, he proceeded to smirk at the fact that yes, he was on his honeymoon at Comic-Con, and he was “a virgin.”
“I think after Batman, I was banned from Comic-Con for about 20 years,” he joked. “I saw Adam West backstage and I just said: I’m sorry.”
But because Clooney showed up, the audience was allowed one more sneak peek. I’ll try to recap it as best I can…
Casey (Robertson), comes to Frank Walker’s (Clooney) house in the middle of nowhere in the country. The place is a fortress, cameras everywhere. She tells him he has to let her in because she wants to know about the place she went to when she picked up the pin. He doesn’t want to, and when she presses the matter, he uses a deterrent; an invisible sort of force that knocks her back, taking the wind out of her. Not exactly present-day tech. He finds a piece of farm equipment outside on fire and uses something to put the fire out that looks like a fire extinguisher, but manages to freeze the whole kaboodle. This was a distraction from Casey, who is now in his house.
Frank tries to get her to leave, but soon finds that “they” have followed her to his home. They demand he give up Casey, whom they claim is a “fugitive.” The people who turn up seem to be an force of very advanced robots, and Frank’s house is a walking arsenal full of booby traps—he has clearly dealt with their kind before. He and Casey run from the robots through the house, taking many of them down through various science-y, and eventually Frank gets them both to a bathtub, which turns out to be a rocket. They escape into the sky.
In short… this looks pretty darn cool.
Here is the poster:
