Due in theaters on Friday, December 19, 2014, “Tomorrowland,” starring George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. Walt Disney Pictures is the distributor involved with the film.
Director Brad Bird is set to helm the new release.
The background of the plot is a story within itself. There are various places around the web that state the plot of “Tomorrowland” will be a Disney science fiction film that revolves around extraterrestrial activity. Now, we have some evidence that may not be the entire story. Either that, or Disney has released some false information to suffice fans and keep the actual plot a secret. The latter has the best chance of being true, although if it’s not, it is still one of the best mysteries about a film in a while and kudos go to Disney for creating a mystery story around the film before the release.
First, we have a brief background. In 2011, the screenwriter for “Prometheus,” Damon Lindelof and Entertainment Weekly reporter Jeff Jensen had dreamed up a new project for Disney Studios. The project was based (or so the story goes) on a mysterious box found hidden away in the Disney archives that was left for the department of the company that later became Imagineering. Imagineering designs and produces rides, shows and the eateries that accompany the Disney World theme park.
The box originally came with a label boasting “That Darn Cat,” named after the 1965 movie. The label had fallen off at some point in storage history and a new label was found underneath – “1952” was all the label said. The project was appropriately titled “1952,” even after Bird signed on to helm the film and George Clooney signed on. “Tomorrowland” became the official title of the movie, named after the theme park’s futuristic portions of the Magic Kingdoms that exist around the world.
The story was a fun little mystery when penner Damon Lindelof and director Brad Bird tweeted back and forth a few times. It began with photos of a mysterious briefcase that boasted the label, “1952.” The briefcase held a copy of “Amazing Stories,” photos of Walt Disney and an old 45 record, along with a few other items. Lindelof came back with a tweet that said the film had nothing to do with aliens. He continued by stating the basis of the plot also lay in the same line as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
With that being said (however confusing as it may be), Hit Fix’s Drew McWeeney states the original plot was this:
"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."
Now, McWeeney gives a more in-depth look into the plot:
"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, Drank was discovered by Nix and was 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 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."
This sounds much more interesting as a film plot than the first short explanation. The idea behind the film is what it is. There is no determining what is happening behind the scenes, even though we have a couple of tweets being written back and forth. It would not be out of Disney’s realm of possibilities to have the two tweeting false names and situations to keep the plot locked down tight until movie time.
Whether it is about UFO’s and saving planet Earth or about robots and dimensional travel, it does appear to be a good movie. I am going to watch it now just to see which is correct on plot details. It has George Clooney and Hugh Laurie playing lead roles. That’s good enough for me.
Watch for “Tomorrowland” in theaters on December 19, 2014.
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