From the moment it was first announced, Disney's Tomorrowland has been hidden behind the strictest veil of secrecy. Almost nothing has been known about the plot, other than it was inspired by a box filled with some old items belonging to Walt Disney, and that it has some kind of connection to Disney World's Tomorrowland attraction. Oh, and we know it was written by Damon Lindelof and director Brad Bird, based on an idea by Entertainment Weekly reporter Jeff Jensen.
Given EW's connection to the movie, it should come as no surprise that the weekly rag has landed the exclusive first plot description and the first-ever images from the film. Three of them, to be exact, and along with the details the filmmakers reveal, it's juicy stuff with a capital J.
The biggest, most tantalizing piece of information comes from writer Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), who draws comparisons between Hogwarts (of the Harry Potter series) and the unique world created for the film.
"What Hogwarts is to magic, Tomorrowland is to science. They are both easy to find if you are a wizard and very difficult to find if you're a Muggle."
Whoa. You had us at Hogwarts of science.
Tomorrowland (the movie) is about a teenage girl named Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson, who has dreams of the bright, optimistic future and astounding technology we were once promised by science and science fiction, but instead watches NASA's Cape Canaveral being disassembled from her nearby home. The story begins when Casey comes into possession of an old lapel pin. When she touches the pin, she gets a quick glimpse at the real Tomorrowland, another world that exists beside ours but is hidden from the sight of Joe Q. Public.
Look closely at the following photo and you can see what looks like the lapel pin in question held in her right hand. This image could depict the very moment of her first "glimpse" of Tomorrowland.
So begins Casey's journey to discover what Tomorrowland is, and find her way back there. Her search leads her to George Clooney's character, Frank Walker. Frank is described as "a hermit and failed inventor" who has a past connection to Tomorrowland. He's embittered about his failures as a scientists and wants nothing to do with Casey's quest, but unwittingly gets sucked into it anyway. To get him onboard, Casey has to find a way to shake him out of his disappointment and recover the optimism that once served as his core.
Other things to be learned from EW's article:
• Walt Disney doesn't appear as a character in the movie, but it's implied that he stole the idea for Disney World's futuristic attraction of the same name from the movie's Tomorrowland.
• Brad Bird says that the philosophical thrust of the film is about exploring what the future once was expected to be, and wrestling with "what's good about the future and what's scary about it."
• George Clooney's jaded hermit character still lives in the farmhouse where he grew up, according to Bird. It sounds like an interesting combination of this old structure and the technology he's built inside it.
Tomorrowland opens in theaters on May 22, 2015. In addition to Clooney and Robertson, it also stars Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Judy Greer, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Robinson.
