Ever since its inception as the mysterious 1952, Brad Bird’s blockbuster Tomorrowland has been a project shrouded in mystery. Exactly what genre does it belong to? And, perhaps more intriguing, what connection does it hold to Walt Disney? Granted, a handful of answers were revealed following last week’s international trailer, though Stitch Kingdom has uncovered a bevy of new plot details that essentially dot the I’s and cross the T’s.
For a full, spoiler-laden rundown, you can head on over to their site. Here, we cherry-picked two of the most prominent tidbits, which delve into George Clooney’s character and the legacy behind the titular utopia.
George Clooney describes his character Frank as “a disenchanted grump who was a bit of a dreamer as a young boy, a smart little scientist kid. Young Frank goes to a place that he thinks is the greatest in the universe and he believes the world is going to be much better off because of it. He finds out that those things were untrue and becomes probably the most cynical person one could be. He isolates himself on his family farm and plans to spend the rest of his life there but is forced to deal with his past because of situations that happen in the film.”
We’ve known for some time that Clooney’s Frank would be a grizzled, world-weary main character, setting up a dichotomy between himself and the wide-eyed Casey (Britt Robertson). Tomorrowland will see the pair travel to Disney’s forgotten city in a bid to uncover its secrets, though as we are about to learn, it just so happens that both Casey and Frank have a larger part to play in the future of the tech-savvy metropolis than they first realized.
When it came to creating a city built by visionaries with advanced technologies, filmmakers knew it had to look like one and finding such a place was not an easy task. At first it seemed as though the whole of Tomorrowland would have to be built from scratch, an expensive and time-consuming proposition. But then in a series of wonderful coincidences, Tom Peitzman, the visual effects producer and the film’s co-producer, stumbled on a futuristic-looking location and brought it to director Brad Bird. The location turned out to be the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain, and was designed by Santiago Calatrava whose work was already serving as an inspiration for production designer Scott Chambliss. The discovery also dovetailed with director Brad Bird’s preference for physical locations over virtual sets.
Merging the realms of science fiction and fantasy into one, Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland is scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 22. Tell us, are you intrigued by the film’s futuristic set-up? Give us your thoughts down below.