Movies

New 'Tomorrowland' Footage Description, Plus Possible Controversy Behind The Scenes

George Clooney from Tomorrowland
By Germain Lussier/

The first footage that screened from Brad Bird's Tomorrowland sounded wonderful. The teaser trailer was great, and now a third piece of footage has been screened. Over the weekend, the D23 Destination D event in Florida (which we first told you about not long ago) revealed a brand new scene from Tomorrowland. The scene takes place at the World's Fair in 1964 and stars the young version of George Clooney's character. You can read about the Tomorrowland World's Fair scene below.

In addition, there's some minor controversy surrounding the film as Oscar-winning sound designer and editor Walter Murch was reportedly let go from the production. Read more about Tomorrowland below.

First up the fun stuff. Tomorrowland Times have a detailed description of the new Tomorrowland World's Fair scene. Here's just a piece.

The scene begins with young Frank Walker (the childhood version of George Clooney's character) arriving at the 1964 New York World's Fair via Grayhound bus. He carries a large canvas backpack with him. As the bus lurches to a stop, the driver exclaims, "Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, World's Fair! Don't forget your valuables, and enjoy the future."

Walking the grounds, the Fair is revealed in its full, recreated glory. Frank visits the Carousel of Progress, where the classic Sherman Brothers song "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" can be heard. He witnesses a demonstration of a "Probability Machine," at the IBM pavilion. The demonstrator explains, "Now, these balls fall in a random pattern, but advanced computing determines exactly where they will end up."

Frank sits on a bench where he us joined by young Athena, played by Raffey Cassidy.

"Don't turn around," she says. "Be cool. Count to twenty, then follow us." She presents Frank with a pin — more on that in a minute.

Frank hops the It's A Small World attraction queue and sneaks onto an empty boat with his bag. He floats through the ride we all know and love ... until he reaches the France segment. From the tip of the Eiffel Tower, a laser scans Frank's pin. His boat is isolated on its path, and the entire track DROPS into a ramp, sending him BENEATH the ride.

To read what happens next, head to this link. The scene sounds super cool, and right in line with rumors we've been publishing for several months now.

As for Murch, the rumor of his departure began at a recent talk, as reported on by Reddit:

I saw Walter Murch speak last night. He started his speech saying he planned on talking about what he was working on, but he wasn't allowed to anymore since he had been fired that day. Just an interesting tid-bit from a talk given by a truly genius level creative mind.

Murch, in case you are unaware, is a multiple Oscar-winner for work on Apocalypse Now and The English Patient. He has worked on many Francis Ford Coppola films in various capacities, and is generally considered one of the best in the business.

When we contacted Brad Bird about this on Twitter, he didn't respond, but did Favorite this tweet:

Not sure what that means. Still, with the film still six months away, it's not a crazy thing to lose a key member of the post-production team. This kind of thing happens all the time, but it's a curious asterisk on the production.

Are you concerned about Murch? What do you think of the Tomorrowland scene description?

Tomorrowland opens May 22.

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