First 'Ad Astra' trailer launches Brad Pitt into awards contention

The first trailer for Brad Pitt’s space drama Ad Astra has arrived online.

From Lost City of Z director James Gray, Ad Astra tells the story of astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) who must travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of the entire solar system.

Joining Pitt and Jones in the cast are Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Kimberly Elise, John Ortiz and Jamie Kennedy.

The film has been in the works since 2016 when Gray confirmed plans to write and direct it at Cannes Film Festival.

It was originally slated for release on January 11, 2019, before it was pushed back first to May 2019, and now to September, putting it squarely in the field for awards contention. It may even be looking at a glitzy festival launch at Venice in a bid for awards glory

During the press tour for Lost City of Z, the filmmaker compared Ad Astra to Joseph Conrad's 1899 novel Heart of Darkness and said it would be "the most realistic depiction of space travel that's been put in a movie.

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Surprisingly, this is the first space-based movie for Pitt whose sci-fi outings have been pretty much limited to 12 Monkeys and World War Z.

Though this is old hat for some cast members like Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland, who both appeared in Space Cowboys.

Then there’s Liv Tyler who famously appeared in Armageddon and it looks like she’s set to play the role of “Wife Waiting for her Husband to Save the Day and Return From Space” in this movie too.

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Ad Astra is one of the first original movies to be released by Disney after the company officially acquired 20th Century Fox in March this year.

Ad Astra is set for release on 18 September.