George Clooney Says His New Movie 'Midnight Sky' Is 'Gravity' Meets 'The Revenant'
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You’d think George Clooney would swear off space after Gravity, yet here he is again in the first trailer for Netflix’s The Midnight Sky, plunging bravely back into the final frontier. Clooney’s feet are on the arctic ground, but his head is in the stars with the crew of the spaceship Aether, who are shuttling home from Jupiter after two years away, dreadfully unaware of the snuffed-out earth awaiting them. With Clooney at the helm as director and a line-up of A-listers rounding out the cast, The Midnight Sky promises to be a Netflix sensation. Here’s everything we know about the film so far.
What is The Midnight Sky About?
The Midnight Sky is based on Good Morning, Midnight, a 2016 literary science fiction novel by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Clooney portrays Augustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer whose career has taken him from remote outpost to remote outpost. Augustine’s latest assignment has landed him in the Arctic Circle, where news of an ambiguous global catastrophe rocks the scientific crew. Married to his work, Augustine refuses to take the last plane out of the Arctic Circle, and the airwaves soon go silent. Augustine believes he may be the last person on Earth—until he encounters eight-year-old Iris, the daughter of a scientist mysteriously abandoned by her departing parent.
Augustine is desperate to make contact with the crew of the Aether, who are traveling home through deep space after two years spent studying the moons of Jupiter. The crew is led by Sully (Felicity Jones), who begins to suspect something is very wrong on Earth when she can’t reach Mission Control. As the astronauts hurtle home, they feel increasingly uneasy and further from Earth than ever, wondering what, if anything, will remain when they return. Desperate to reach Sully and her crew with a plea to seek out new life elsewhere, Augustine and Iris set out across the dangerous arctic landscape, hoping to reach a distant observatory with equipment powerful enough to puncture the radio silence smothering the Earth.
Clooney spoke with EW about the challenge of telling such an insular story, saying, "It's a trick, this one, because you have to first establish how alone [Augustine] is. Then you have to make that loneliness become more and more dangerous along the way." Clooney went on to bill the film as “Gravity meets The Revenant.”
Who’s Starring in The Midnight Sky?
In addition to Clooney and Jones, The Midnight Sky stars an ensemble cast of A-listers. Sully’s crew includes David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, and Demian Bichir, while members of the astronauts’ earth-bound families are played by TV stars Miriam Shor and Sophie Rundle.
When Will The Midnight Sky Hit Netflix?
The Midnight Sky lands on Netflix on December 23, following a limited theatrical release, making it Netflix’s holiday tentpole blockbuster. Watch this space—we’ll continue to update this story as we learn more.
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