I did receive an all expenses paid trip to the Tomorrowland press junket, but all futuristic fan envy is my own
When all of the actors in Tomorrowland tell you that they were really excited about the project because they wanted to work with Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof, you get the jist that they are a pretty big deal. Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof are the writers and producers of Tomorrowland. Brad Bird also directed the film. They were both really intriguing to listen to, and jested that they got to “warm things up for George’s [interview]” and that it was all down hill from there. This little quip definitely made me a fan of theirs right away.
Brad Bird is known for his work on films like Ratatouille, The Simpsons, and The Incredibles, while Damon Lindelof is most notably known for his writing on the TV Series Lost. With backgrounds like those, you know that Tomorrowland is going to have quite a neat vibe to the film.
We had earlier visited the Disney Archives (you can read the Disney Archives posts here) to see what information they used to help bring Tomorrowland to the big screen. We asked Bird and Lindelof to share how the Archives helped them in their vision of the film. They shared,
I think that we are both fascinated with Imagineering and particularly Walt’s futurism. A lot of that stuff was rampant in the early days of designing the parks itself. And in Tomorrowland obviously he came up with the concept in the 50s and 60s, but I think that this sort of treasure trove of roads not taken, the part that Brad and particularly zeroed in on was the 1964 World’s Fair where there were a number of attractions that [showed this futurism]; Mr. Lincoln, Carousel of Progress, Magic Skyway, It’s a Small World. We just felt like t would be really great to see those on the big screen kind of re-create that feeling.
In addition to bringing Walt’s futurism to life, both Brad and Damon wanted to be a beacon of hope in a world that no longer sees the future as a brighter place. In a world where movies are about the end of time, teenagers killing each other in barbaric games, the writers of Tomorrowland wanted to figure out why our future began to look so bleak and how they might motivate their audiences to rethink that. It was really inspiring to hear that this was one of their goals when writing Tomorrowland
One of my favorite parts of this interview was them talking about a mysterious 1952 box that they discovered during the film making process. They explained the story behind the box,
I will say that the more that we look into what the origins of the box are and where it came from and who found it, the less defined answers that we get. Suffice to say we became fairly convinced looking through it that we didn’t know exactly what it was. The things we found in the box that were interesting to us felt like, ‘what if we were kids in third grade and someone put this box in front of us and said, tell us a story about the things that you find in this box’. How would they all connect?
We took some things like the design for the, it’s a small world ride and Flushing Meadows in 64. And this weird kind of like disk that might have been an animation that Orson Welles might have had some interest in. And we sort of said, what if Walt Disney was a member of this secret group of geniuses plus ultra. And tomorrowland itself was actually a cover for a real place that they built in an alternate dimension? And then we were kind of off to the races.
I found it particularly neat that this mysterious box inspired so much for the producers. Not only did the archives inspire them, but this box that no one could really figure out where it came from did too. Maybe this super secret society of geniuses planted it there for them to find so they would make this movie?! We may never know!
To learn more about Tomorrowland, make sure to check out all the Tomorrowland interviews here, plus you can check out this awesome trailer!
Also follow along on the Tomorrowland social media channels here: Tomorrowland opens in theaters everywhere May 22nd.
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