Damon Lindelof Talks TOMORROWLAND, the Teaser Trailer, What the Film is About, and More at NYCC

Damon Lindelof Talks TOMORROWLAND, the Teaser Trailer, What the Film is About, and More at NYCC
by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted 8 hours ago

Brad Bird only makes great movies.  If you’re not familiar with his name, he directed The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  So when Disney announced Bird would be helming Tomorrowland (which is scripted by Bird, Jeff Jensen and Lost alum Damon Lindelof), you could have told me it was about a man’s quest to get a bowl of soup and it would have been one of my most anticipated films of the year.  Thankfully, he decided to tell a different story, and it’s a big budget sci-fi movie that stars George Clooney and revolves around “a bright, optimistic teen (Britt Robertson) bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment who embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as ‘Tomorrowland.’”
The other day at New York Comic-Con, Disney finally unveiled the first footage from Tomorrowland (panel recap here) and a great teaser trailer that absolutely leaves you wanting to know more.  Which is exactly what a teaser is supposed to do.  Shortly after the NYCC panel ended, I got a few minutes with Lindelof on the red carpet.  He talked about the creation of the Tomorrowland teaser trailer, what the film is about, what they’ve tried to learn from friends and family screenings, and more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say and towards the end watch for a Brad Bird photobomb.
Damon Lindelof:
Talks about the creation of the Tomorrowland teaser trailer.
Talks about what the film is about.
2:00 – Talks about how Tomorrowland has defenses in place and how the film has an antagonist core of bad guys preventing the main characters from reaching their goal.
2:20 – Have they done any friends and family screenings?  Talks about trying to figure out where is it confusing and engaging.  Says they don’t want to make a movie that has a half an hour of exposition.
2:50 – Brad Bird photobomb.
3:05 – What is his high score on his Twilight Zone pinball machine.
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Why Brad Bird Chose Directing ‘Tomorrowland’ Over ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’
Timing is everything.
by kevin p. sullivan 3 hours ago
Reporting by Josh Horowitz

Back in the dark times when “Star Wars” fans didn’t know who would direct “Episode VII,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” director Brad Bird was considered a major contender and even met with Lucasfilm about the project.

But ultimately, he chose to stick with “Tomorrowland” — then called “1952″ — which had attracted George Clooney to the project just after Bird’s name entered into the “Episode VII” discussions.

At New York Comic-Con, attendees got the first glimpse at the movie Bird choose over “Star Wars,” and MTV spoke with the filmmaker about the choice he had to make.


“We were already deeply into ['Tomorrowland']. George had committed to it, and we were down the road a bit,” he said about the timing of his choice. “For a moment there, I thought that it would work out to do this and go right into ['Episode VII']. It was supposed to be summer of this coming year. There was no way to make that schedule and give this film the attention that it deserved, so I had to step away.”

The missed opportunity is just another story of bad timing, but Bird has some perspective on the whole ordeal.

“I know ['Episode VII'] is going to be terrific and everything, but I’m really happy to do this film,” he said. “It’s rare to do a film of size that’s original, so those opportunities can’t be missed either.”

“Tomorrowland” opens in theaters on May 22.
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