Bird and Lindelof reveal Tomorrowland secrets at D23

Director Brad Bird ('The Iron Giant', 'Ratatouille') and writer Damon Lindelof took the stage in Anaheim yesterday to reveal a few more intriguing details about the forthcoming live action sci-fi movie, 'Tomorrowland'.

The pair brought with them a dusty old box, supposedly dug up from Disney's archives and labelled 'that darn cat' (a reference to Disney's film from 1965) which contained a series of strange objects including animation reels, a forged picture of Walt Disney with Amelia Earhart taken long after her supposed disappearance and blueprints for the titular theme park which also reveal hidden plans under the structure under a black light.

The pair claim that some of the objects in the box may be real:

“We put together an exhibit at D23 that curates everything that we pulled out of the box,” said Lindelof. “We don't know if the contents are authentic in the traditional sense. Some of them are absolutely real, we just don't know who put them there and why and our job as storytellers is to say, 'What if everything in this box was put there for a reason?'”

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Such clever marketing will be familiar to fans of 'Lost', although it also managed to draw George Clooney onboard the project:

“We brought the box to his house… Then we told him the story. He said, 'I'm interested, send me the script when it's done.' He read it and liked it enough to take the leap with us.”

The film also stars Hugh Laurie as the villain, although more plot points are predictably vague at this point.

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The rumours that the story, centred on Walt Disney's ambitious plans for a future-themed adventure park, will be about aliens have been scotched by Brad Bird:
 
“When we first started talking about it, the movie we were referencing was Close Encounters, so I think people incorrectly deduced that it was about some sort of alien contact, which we've ruled out. But that movie was about discovery. It was about that level of excitement of, 'there's something out there, and it inspires me and I can't quite explain why it inspires me, but I need to know more about it. I need to get to it.' That became the driving, fundamental feel behind it. We're not trying to make a Spielberg movie, this is very much a Brad Bird movie, but I feel like that's the vibe.”

After talking about not wanting to give too much away, Bird also went on to decry trailers that give away too much plot and don't allow audiences to share the storyteller's journey:

“That's a trend. People often explain too much and to me, it feels a little desperate, like you don't think being intrigued is enough. And there are many trailers where, if it ended halfway through, I'd be in. And then they go, 'It turns out the villain is the best friend!'”

'Tomorrowland' is due to be released December, 2014.