First look at George Clooney in Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland; plus new details

Few films are as highly anticipated as Brad Bird‘s TOMORROWLAND. The mysterious project does not have the same clout as STAR WARS or BATMAN V SUPERMAN, but the respect that Bird has engendered through his animated films as well as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL has helped him bring this new Disney film to Christopher Nolan level excitement.

Entertainment Weekly has debuted three new images from TOMORROWLAND along with new details from Brad Bird himself. The images consist of the concept art seen above as well as the first look at George Clooney in character. Despite a very vague synopsis, we still do not know exactly what the movie is about, but Bird shared a new description of the Damon Lindelof scripted project.

A Florida girl who dreams of the future while watching the launchpads of Cape Canaveral being disassembled goes exploring one day and, after landing in a bit of trouble, finds herself in possession of a mysterious pin. Touching it reveals a vision of a place that may not be a different world but simply a better one. (You can see the concept art above.) Then it’s gone—out, out, brief candle!—and the quest to discover the real Tomorrowland begins.

Bird goes on to say the film will take a mythical approach to what we think of as the future from our present day. Damon Lindelof gives a bit more of pop culture reference point we can relate to.

“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,” says Lindelof. “Walt Disney is not a character in our movie, but he is referenced as having some involvement in this mysterious place called Tomorrowland, as a huge futurist and aficionado of space travel, rocketry, cities of the future, and space travel.”

Co-written by EW writer Jeff Jensen, TOMORROWLAND sounds at once exciting and familiar, something Disney has done well in the past but in recent years has been absent from their live action work. I trust Bird implicitly to make something exciting and unique and TOMORROWLAND seems to fit that bill. Hopefully those Damon Lindelof haters out there will allow themselves to give this a chance.

TOMORROWLAND opens on May 22, 2015.