Trailer released for Vancouver filmed Tomorrowland starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie (VIDEO)

Walt Disney Pictures has released the first teaser trailer of its highly-anticipated upcoming science-fiction adventure film, Tomorrowland.

Much of the movie was filmed in Vancouver and the British Columbia interior from August 2013 to January 2014, with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie flying into the city to star in their respective roles.

During their time away from filming, Clooney was spotted at local bars getting smooched by young female fans and Laurie entertained crowds at The Cellar Jazz Club on West Broadway.

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Tomorrowland is directed by two-time Academy Award-winner Brad Bird, who is best known for directing critically-acclaimed hits that include The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The film also stars Britt Robertson, Kathryn Hahn, Tim McGraw and Judy Greer.

Not much is revealed in the two-minute trailer, which features an inventor (Clooney) providing a narration that asks: “What if there is a secret place where nothing is impossible, a miraculous place where you could actually change the world?”

It alludes that the inventor has found a way to travel to an alternate dimension and will take a teenager (Robertson) there with her.

An old casting call provided the following description about the film’s plot:

“A teenage girl, a genius middle-aged man (who was kicked out of Tomorrowland) and a pre-pubescent girl robot attempt to get to and unravel what happened to Tomorrowland, which exists in an alternative dimension, in order to save Earth.”

The “Tomorrowland” that they keep referring to in this break-down appears to be a place where science has blown past the world we live in, and when Frank Walker was a young man, he first encountered the promise of Tomorrowland at the 1964 World’s Fair. David Nix was there, showing off his own work, and he told Walker to come back when he was older and his inventions actually worked. A girl named Athena saw great promise in 11-year-old Frank, though, and she snuck him into Tomorrowland. Eventually, Frank was discovered by Nix and thrown out, but not before learning that the girl he loved, Athena, was actually a robot.

By the time we meet Frank in the film, he’s much older, and George Clooney is set to play the part. Nix is the role that Hugh Laurie is signed for, and by the point the main story of the film kicks in, Nix has been in charge of Disneyland for many years, and he’s become rotten, corrupt. Athena, unchanged since Frank was a young man, plays a key role in the film, and the hero is a girl named Casey who has a quick scientific mind that becomes important as the story unfolds. Nix is a guy who values technical accomplishment over creative thinking, and when he throws Frank out of Tomorrowland, he’s not alone. Every creative thinker is banished, allowing Nix to focus purely on aesthetics and technical advancement for its own sake.

There’s interdimensional travel, human-looking robots, and a quest for revenge on the part of Frank. He is a bitter adult, and the film is not just about Casey’s adventure, but also about Frank rediscovering the kid he used to be. It sounds like young Frank actually plays a decent-sized role in the film, so we may see both timelines play out to some extent. – Drew McWeeny

Feature Image: Walt Disney