It stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie will play the villain, and it was formerly known as “1952,” but that’s about all we’ve really known up until now about director Brad Bird (“The Incredibles“) and Damon Lindelof‘s (“Prometheus“) secret live-action project for Walt Disney Studios, “Tomorrowland.” Oh sure, we’ve known that the movie would reportedly be a “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“-esque story, inspired by material from the archives of WED Enterprises, Walt Disney‘s personal development lab, and there was educated speculation that posited the movie was about Walt Disney’s involvement with an Army project to let the world know that UFOs really exist. But because it was a Damon Lindelof project, he of the J.J. Abrams school of keeping info close to the vest, no one would verify the veracity of such claims.
That may not change today either, but HitFix is reporting that they’ve got the inside track on what “Tomorrowland” is about. Given that the clandestinity of the project has made its secrets all the more alluring, let’s dive in. While the outlet won’t claim this leaked new logline is real, they do insist it’s the “official description that’s being used to help assemble a cast.” And it reads as such:
“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.”
Presumably Clooney is the middle-aged genius, a teenage girl is yet to be cast, and there will be a pre-pubescent girl to either voice or play another female robot (btw, can we suggest Elle Fanning already?). There are other details as well. There seems to be a prologue about the middle-aged man (Frank Walker, apparently) as a young man showing promise at the 1964 World’s Fair who sneaks into a secret place within known as “Tomorrowland” where science has advanced far beyond what humans know of in that day and age. But Frank is discovered by a man named David Nix (Laurie) and excommunicated quickly.
The film then flashes forward to Clooney’s Walker as the aforementioned middle-aged man where he faces off with the Nix character who has become bitter and corrupt.
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 [the teenage girl’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.
Is this the real log-line for “Tomorrowland”? God, can it be, please? This sounds fantastic and something out of “Amazing Stories,” “Flash Gordon“-era science serials and something that Lucas and Spielberg would have read about as a child. Plus it sounds about 10,000x more interesting than half the reboots, redo-overs and franchises out there. “Tomorrowland” won’t hit theaters until December 19th, 2014, but consider our ticket already bought.
Stoked! Brad Bird is a visionary genius of Hollywood escapism.