One more Press Trip to the Land of Magic and where All things are possible! Follow our stories as we report them live #AladdinBloggers #Disneyland60 #TomorrowlandBloggers
Having a privilege to meet and speak to Brad Bird who directed the movie Tomorrowland has been one of my amazing life’s experiences.
Working on Tomorrowland has been a process that involved a lot of research and tapping into the Disney archives. What was discovered during this process solidified the direction where the movie was going and what ideas found their implementation in it.
Read a huge part of the interview with Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof where they discuss how Walt Disney and his vision of tomorrow, the future, had affected personal lives and thinking, and creativity of these talented creators of Tomorrowland.
Just a month ago, we had yet another chance to speak with Brad Bird. At that time, he shared his rich work experiences and opened up why creating movies and activities that feed our children’s imagination is an important task of any movie-maker.
Q. You have worn so many different hats and done so many different things. What would you like to do that you haven’t done yet?
Brad Bird: I have several movies, I had a period of about 10 years in Development Hell where I was, I could always sell an idea to a studio, I could do that pretty readily. But then I was in the realm of Vice Presidents who didn’t have any power to get anything made. So Hollywood loves “Maybe” because, uh, “maybe” keeps you from going anywhere else, but “maybe” also means they don’t have to make it. So they like to keep you around and kind of as a sort of a “prisoner in a white collar prison,” you know.
When I started out in movies, I loved “yes,” I liked “maybe” and I hated “no.” And very after a few years I learned to love “yes” and “no,” and hate “maybe” because “maybe” takes years of your life away and doesn’t give you anything at the end of it.
Q. Tell us what was the inspiration behind Tomorrowland when you were inspired to do it?
Brad Bird: I was at the very end of Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and we had tested very well, but there were some things in the story that I was not happy about. And fortunately we were efficiently made and we were still a little bit under budget.
So if we were really surgical and careful, we could fix the things that I wanted to fix. So Damon Lindleoff came in to do, help me fix the writing in a couple of these things and some of them were tricky because we had to use a lot of stuff that we’d already done and had to fit in but also solve some problems. So I was working with him, and we were having lunch when I asked him what he was doing next and he mentioned this project.
And we fell into a conversation about, how we viewed the future, when we were kids, “the popular vision of the future” versus “the vision of the future now.”
And when we were kids the world was not a better place, it still had race problems, there was Vietnam, there were assassinations, there was the Cold War, there were plenty of bad things going on. But somehow people managed to, hold up a positive vision of the future and that we were gonna solve all these problems and – and get there.
And somewhere in the intervening years that vision got corroded into “it seems to be that the only credible vision of the future that people will take seriously now is a dark vision of the future” where resources are gone and the planet is ruined and that we’re all, you know, on a road to Apocalypse.
The movie Tomorrowland has an incredible sense of a mission to live, to find the bright future where everything is OK. The characters, amazingly played by George Clooney, Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson, Britt Robertson are flashed out with the directorial talent and personal acting talents.
If you would like to have this movie classic in your library, pick up your Blu Ray DVD version with bonus material and hours of episodes and people who made this movie possible.
Here’s what Brad Bird said when asked about what he’d like others to take away with them after they watched the movie.
Brad Bird: I don’t wanna make it sound like broccoli. Like it’s something that’s good for them and that they won’t really enjoy eating it, but it will provide them with nutrition later.
I want to convey that I think first and foremost, we tried to make an entertaining movie that was a good ride. But, I hope if they come away from it with something, that it would be the idea that the future is not set. It’s in our hands; it’s fluid; it’s made every day by the actions of everyone, and don’t resign yourself to the negative future; help build another one.
I think what we were also trying to say is that “imagination is important but it’s only the first step.” It’s that’s what gets you in and somebody at the other table said, “Why when at the end of the movie when everybody touches the pin, why are they in the field and not in Tomorrowland?
You’ll Never Know Unless You Go See The Movie!
And I said, um, “It’s because you try not to explain this stuff, you try to just let it live in the land where it sparks thoughts in people without telling them an interpretation. But, we made a conscious effort to put Tomorrowland there and you’re not there.
You have to take steps. You have to take a journey. You know. But it’s there, it’s in sight. And the idea of the pin was that people would be implanted with the vision of this place and then work to pursue it, you know?
And so if you imagine it, it’s great, but don’t let it end there. You know. Too–– too many people imagine and then they go, “Oh well,” the next morning instead of going, “That dream actually could happen. It’s gonna take a heck of a lot of work, but it can happen.”
Tomorrowland Section of the Disneyland
Take this precious chance to watch the movie when it comes out on Blu Ray DVD October 23 and experience the Future as it was seen by the movies actors, directors, and writers. In my humble opinion, you will create your own ideas what future holds for you.
