George Clooney to star in Disney's alien pic '1952', renamed 'Tomorrowland'

Joanna wrote:Mmmm....what's a "high profile tent pole" please ?

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November 12, 2012

George Clooney to star in 'top secret' sci-fi film from 'Lost' creator? It's currently being referred to as '1952', but that's apparently just a code name...

The film is currently being referred to as 1952, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, that's just a code name for this "ultra-secret sci-fi project". Exact plot details are being kept under wraps, but it's said to have similarities to Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

"1952" has a script by Damon Lindelof, who will also produce the movie. Lindelof served as an executive producer on Lost from 2004 to 2010 after creating the show with JJ Abrams and and Jeffrey Lieber. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which came out this June (2012).

Alongside Lindelof, "1952" has already lined up Brad Bird as director. Bird helmed last year's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and previously directed animated smashes Ratatouille and The Incredibles.

Meanwhile, Clooney will next be seen in another sci-fi film called Gravity, which follows a pair of astronauts struggling to survive on a damaged space station. It co-stars Sandra Bullock and opens in cinemas at some point next year (2013). Clooney has also lined up his next project as director, casting himself alongside Daniel Craig and Bill Murray in a period drama called The Monuments Men.

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EN Movies - George Clooney will star in Disney’s forthcoming sci-fi film 1952.

The actor has been cast to headline the 3D alien movie, SlashFilm.com reports.

Little is known about the script from Damon Lindelof and Jeff Jensen.

George was rumoured to have captured the lead last year but the deal has only just been confirmed.

At the time, Variety reported 1952 was being pitched as a "Close Encounters of the Third Kind-esque story following a man who makes contact with aliens on Earth”.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird will helm the project, despite a recent interview with NewsBeat in which he said he is “not convinced” 3D films would be the future of movie-making. The director was also behind The Incredibles, Ratatouille and The Iron Giant.

1952 would mark his first live-action film since his work on the Mission Impossible franchise.

George is meanwhile next scheduled to star and direct period drama Monuments Men. Daniel Craig, Bill Murray, John Goodman and Cate Blanchett have been attached to star in the project, which George co-wrote with Grant Heslov.

Further casting details on 1952 have not yet been confirmed.

The film is scheduled for a 2014 release.

ktsue2002 wrote:Katiedot, just curious, what is up with all the announcements on Facebook saying that you and others can make money blogging about celebrities? I personally don't feel a desire to make money in this manner, but it sounds interesting! Take care, ktsue

George Clooney as Walt Disney?

I was writing, waxing snarketic on George Clooney starring in a movie written by the guy who specializes in mystical sci-fi bullsh*t (Damon Lindelof of Lost and Prometheus fame) and based on Disney World’s most boring attraction, Tomorrowland (except for Space Mountain, which is f*cking awesome), when I had a thought: Several pieces of information clicked into place and suddenly I was struck by an idea. A tantalizing, sexy idea.

Here’s the rundown: Earlier last year Lindelof and director Brad Bird announced they were developing a project at Disney called 1952. Late last year, George Clooney signed up to star. Yesterday, EW reported that 1952 was changing its name to Tomorrowland. Everyone, myself included, mocked the notion of a movie derived from Tomorrowland, as it is lame (I remember it being a repository for stuff that was either never going to be used, like monorails, or was hilariously out of date, like “microwaves are so crazy!”), but then the switch flipped.

You guys.

What if this is the long-awaited Walt Disney biopic?

Lindelof is a graduate of the JJ Abrams School of SUPER BIG SECRETS, so it’s impossible to trust anything he says, and he’s going to engage in stunting like releasing this tease of a suitcase stuffed full of papers, including photos of Disney. I hate SUPER BIG SECRETS because everything is a tease and everything is a misdirect, but that also means that Lindelof is kind of the perfect guy to develop this project. A Disney biopic has been speculated on forever, with Tom Hanks starring as Disney in Saving Mr. Banks—the story of the making of Mary Poppins—being the closest we’ve come yet. But that still isn’t full-on biographical treatment of one of the most important figures in entertainment history. And if you’re going to do that, at last, what better way to protect its development than by letting Lindelof run wild with his SECRETY SECRETS?

The case for: Disney was a huge futurist and Tomorrowland was his pride and joy, so much so that he’s rumored to have forbidden it ever being shut down, despite its terminal lameness. Tomorrowland has a December 2014 release date, which makes more sense for award bait than for a sci-fi tent pole, especially since Disney will be re-launching Star Wars the next year—why dilute their own brand? And in 1952…he proposed Disneyland.

Is it? IS IT?

It will be a while before we know either way. Clooney is currently in Germany prepping his next movie, which he will also direct, The Monuments Men, adapted from the book about the Allied team that tracked down and saved many priceless pieces of art from destruction toward the end of World War II. It’s a terrific book ripe for a movie adaptation, and Matt Damon and Daniel Craig are on board to co-star, because apparently Clooney is inspired by Vanity Fair now. He’s positioning Monuments Men later this year For Your Consideration. The strategy is already unfolding—this year he’s working the producer’s circuit for Argo, being a bro and supporting Affleck, but this time next year he’s going to be promoting himself and Monuments Men, as well as August: Osage County, another of his producer credits and another potential award contender. Then he could be back the following year for his role as Walt Disney.

Clooney is seriously gaming with the Academy, and seems to be angling to be as much a power player as a producer as he is an A-list actor. Is it really the moment for a cheesy Disney sci-fi movie? Or are the next couple years more about the prestige? And what’s more prestigious than being the one to finally, finally bring Walt to the big screen in his own biopic?

I can see it. Can’t you?

Missa wrote:Lainey makes an excellent case for the film being a Walt Disney biopic. If George is playing Walt, that could be really great, and finally get him the Best Actor Oscar he's been dying for.

LornaDoone wrote:

Missa wrote:Lainey makes an excellent case for the film being a Walt Disney biopic. If George is playing Walt, that could be really great, and finally get him the Best Actor Oscar he's been dying for.

Here are some other potential "playing Walt Disney" names that have been passed around!


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Disney Historian Has A Theory About Brad Bird's Mysterious Tomorrowland

2013-02-11 1

Author: Eric Eisenberg

Brad Bird's Tomorrowland is the big new mystery on the block in Hollywood. Originally titled 1952, the project is a collaboration between the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol director and Damon Lindelof, but all details about the plot have been kept under wraps. The history that has been going around is that Lindelof went into Disney one day and was given a banker's box with the label "1952" on it. After looking through the box he was suddenly inspired. But what is the story that he was inspired to come up with?

Walt Disney historian Jim Hill says that he has a theory and posted it on his official website. And it all begins with this photograph that Bird posted on his Twitter feed a couple weeks back:

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After Bird released that shot, the official Disney fan club, D23, analyzed the box and its contents and came up with a detailed list of 12 different objects that can be seen. It was from this box that Hill developed his theory, and it's about how the US government once tried to use Walt Disney and his family-friendly ways to tell the populations of both America and the world that aliens and unidentified flying objects actually exist. Crazy? Just wait for the details.

Hill's story ties in with a tale that former Imagineer Ward Kimball "loved to tell as its jumping-off point." It all began with Disneyland TV series , which aired an episode called Man in Space. The show was so popular - finding 42 million viewers - that not only is it said it inspired the US to enter the space race, it led government officials to approach Disney about making a "UFO Picture." According to the story, the members of the government believed that Disney's name, reputation, and tone delivering such devastating news would prevent panic and chaos. Eventually the project was cancelled when the government backed out of using real UFO footage.

It's a very cool idea and a certainly a story I would love to see play out on the big screen, but would this mean that George Clooney, who was previously announced to star, would be playing Walt Disney? If that's the case, will it be weird that Tom Hanks will also be playing the legendary studio head in the upcoming Mary Poppins drama Saving Mr. Banks? A very interesting theory at the very least.

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D23 Turns to Disney Archivist to Uncover Clues about Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof’s Mysterious Twitter Photo of Box 1952

02.04.13 – A picture of Walt Disney with Major Woodlief of the U.S. Army General Reserve Fund, a 1960s Walt Disney Productions logo, and an old banker’s box from the 1965 production of That Darn Cat are just a few of the puzzling items Walt Disney Archives confirmed in the photos recently posted on Twitter.

Has The Walt Disney Studios uncovered a lost treasure?

Disney Fans, Twitter followers, and the media have been speculating on the contents of a perplexing box labeled “1952,” since Pixar Animation Studios writer/director Brad Bird and screenwriter/producer David Lindelof posted photos of this curious container on their personal Twitter accounts on January 23.

Last week, The Walt Disney Studios announced the film, which will release on December 19, 2014, is now titled Tomorrowland (it was previously known as 1952). Bird is in the director’s seat and is writing the script with Lindelof.

But what do the box’s contents reveal?

D23: The Official Disney Fan Club turned to the Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline—no stranger to archival sleuthing—to help us unravel some of the riddles wrapped inside this mysterious and enigmatic photograph. Here’s what she shared with us:

1. From the age, type, and conditions of the items I can see, I feel that the materials in the box were gathered together for a project from the past. Perhaps as research for a science-fiction-themed film, television, or park attraction, or even a futurism project like Walt’s vision of EPCOT.

2. It looks like someone reused an old banker’s box from another Disney production. We don’t use this style of boxes anymore at the studio. There is another sticker on the cover of the box, but the text on the picture is obscured.

3. Someone put tape over the original production label and hand wrote “1952″ in pen—the brevity of the title and the fact that it’s handwritten sounds to me like it’s probably a working title. Both the studio and WED often used working titles before they came up with a final title of the project. “The Concert Feature” was what they called Fantasia before they decided upon a final name for example.

4. On the top there are some old photos. The three that I can see are of Walt with visitors, probably taken here at the studio. The one on top is in our photo collection and I was able to identify the man with him as Major Woodlief of the U.S. Army Reserve General Fund. It was taken in September 1943. The Disney Studio worked closely with the United States government and military soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force elements were stationed at the Lot for the duration of the war. I can’t identify the people in the other photos, but we have the negatives for the photos in our collection. They were taken in 1950.

5. There is a large manila envelope sealed with a loose sticker. It appears to have material in it, but we can only guess its contents. From the size and shape of the envelope, I would guess it might contain maps, brochures, or some other kind of folded documents.

6. The magazine that appears along with this curious collection of documents and objects provides more clues. It is a copy of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories from August 1928. I got a closer look at the cover by looking it up online. It shows a man in flight wearing some sort of jet pack, powered by a hand-controlled device of some sort. After doing a little more research, I discovered that the cover story of that particular issue is the serialized novel The Skylark of Space, written by Elmer Edward “Doc” Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby. Walt was always interested in futurism and flight especially in the 1950s and early ’60s; in fact, for Disneyland’s Tencennial Celebration in 1965, he actually had a man fly down Main Street, U.S.A. with a jet pack. The man also did flight demonstrations in Tomorrowland in the Flight Circle.

7. There are two slide boxes in the box, one features the Technicolor logo; the writing on the other white slide box is indecipherable.

8. There is a 45 rpm record that appears to be a master disc. It is probably from the ’40s or early ’50s (these type of records pre-date magnetic tape recording). It’s definitely not the kind of record that is pressed and sold to the public. Unfortunately, its handwritten label is too blurry to decipher.

9. There is a blue paperback book in the box. The title appears to be Moral Research. The spine has other writing that I can’t read—the author’s name could possibly be at the top, but I can’t make it out. There is another name that looks to me like “Roland”—probably the name of a fictive publisher.

10. There is a small white box on the right side that looks like the boxes we use to store individual reels of 8mm film. There is no print that I can see for further ID.

11. There is a U.S. mail letter on the right side. I can see two purple postage stamps, but the denomination is not clear enough to read.

12. Under the photos, record, magazine, and the letter is what looks to me like one of the old peg-and-screw albums we used to use here at the Studio for scrapbooks. It appears to have more photos and perhaps art in it (artboard anyway). Under that are the old string accordion files that we used to use for clippings, documents, loose art, etc. And there are a couple of manila mailing envelopes, too.