MAY 18 (Reuters) — Hollywood superstar, George Clooney, walked the ‘grey carpet’ alongside rising star Britt Robertson, director Brad Bird and actor Hugh Laurie for the European premiere of ‘Tomorrowland: A World Beyond’ on Sunday (May 17).
Disney’s new sci-fi pic shows a teenager with an interest in science, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), who finds a pin marked with the letter ‘T’ which seemingly transports her to a futuristic world whenever she touches it.
But when she can no longer see the world through her pin, Newton is helped in her quest to reach Tomorrowland by a robot built like a child, Athena (Raffey Cassidy), and a reclusive former boy-genius, Frank Walker (George Clooney), who once lived in the mysterious utopia that exists somewhere in time and space.
The movie lives up to Walt Disney’s optimistic outlook on the future and belief in innovation.
“Well, I don’t know. He (Walt Disney) was an optimist. I’m an optimist. I think Brad’s (Bird) very much an optimist. I think the idea was that you’re not… your future is in your own hands and I think that’s always a good thing to say,” said Clooney.
Britt Robertson agreed with Clooney that the film pushes the idea the future does not necessarily have to be as dark and frightening as movies often portray.
“Well, I just think it’s a different take on the future you know. We see so many of these movies where we’re looking at our future as this dark place to be and to raise children and to grow up and what if it’s not, you know? What if it’s not a horrible place? And if us just feeding into that makes it worse then what kind of disservice are we doing to the world?,” she said.
The film’s co-writer, Damon Lindelof, of ‘Lost’ and ‘Prometheus’ fame, compared the bright future of ‘Tomorrowland’ with the darker, dystopian ideas of films like ‘Mad Max’.
“I feel like we have the hubris to say we do want the movie to be about something and what we wanted it to be about was – we’re being inundated with apocalyptic imagery. I love ‘The Hunger Games’. I love ‘The Terminator’ films. I love ‘Mad Max’, but is there a better version of the future, because I don’t want to live in those futures? And how did we get here? So, that’s the movie we tried to make,” he said.
Director, Brad Bird, who previously directed and wrote Disney’s ‘The Incredibles’, also believes the film promotes an idea of a bright future.
“I think that somewhere along the line it got taken away from us. People generally believe that the future is not going to be as good for us as it was for our parents and why did that change. You know, the world’s no worse than it was then. But we are in control of what the future will be and I think this film says that,” said Bird.
The film has somewhat deep ideas about time and space, and Robertson described how Bird felt his connections to Disney helped get a film containing deep, futuristic ideas like ‘Tomorrowland: A World Beyond’ made into a feature film.
“I remember when Brad Bird, when we first started shooting the movie, he said, ‘You know, this movie would be so hard to get made if I didn’t have the relationships that I do with Disney and the people over there.’ Because it’s an original idea, it’s a very grand idea, it’s very big and expensive and, like, you know, it’s mind-blowing and it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around it. But it’s so much fun and a real adventure,” she said.
‘Tomorrowland: A World Beyond’ goes on release in the UK and parts of Europe on May 22.