Clooney revisits the future in Tomorrowland

Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney straps on a jet pack again for Disney’s new movie Tomorrowland, a retro-futuristic spectacle mixing environmental themes with sci-fi wizardry — and some good old-fashioned fun. 

Clooney, who fired up his thrusters only two years ago in Oscar-winning space drama Gravity, stars as a burned-out engineering genius in the film to be released next week, just in time for the summer blockbuster season.

The actor said the movie, which is difficult to categorize, was a courageous gamble by the studio giant, going up against sure-fire box office hits like the latest Avengers sequel, Age of Ultron.

“It’s a really bold thing for Disney to be willing to do a film that isn’t a sequel and isn’t a comic book and truly invest in a summer film of this sort of ilk” he said, presenting the film ahead of its US release on May 22. The movie’s plot has been shrouded in secrecy and, without giving away spoilers, it certainly provides a rollercoaster cinematic ride worthy of Disney’s Tomorrowland theme parks whose name it shares.

It tells the story of teenage rebel Casey, played by Britt Robertson, who finds herself sucked into a mission to unearth the secrets of Tomorrowland, a future realm ruled by a despot played by British House star Hugh Laurie.

Clooney plays inventor Frank Walker, who found his way into Tomorrowland as a young boy but became cynical and was thrown out by Laurie’s character, David Nix.

Sandwiched between big budget franchise films such as Jurassic World this summer, Bird said Tomorrowland is ‘an original in a forest of sequels.’ The film is projected to draw $44 million in its U.S. opening this weekend.