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George Clooney wants his new movie 'Midnight Sky' to bring hope to viewers

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Shiela Reyes, ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA -- Seven years since starring in “Gravity,” Hollywood A-lister George Clooney returns with a new space drama with his upcoming Netflix movie “The Midnight Sky.”</p><p>Set in the year 2049, the sci-fi drama is based on the novel “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton, which follows the story of scientist Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney) who decides to stay behind an Arctic station after a global catastrophe.</p><p>While dealing with his illness alone at the Barbeau Observatory, Augustine made it his mission to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to an unlivable Earth after a two-year mission to K-23, one of Jupiter’s moons.</p><p>As he tries to communicate with Aether where Sully and the other astronauts are, Augustine discovers a little girl named Iris who was left behind like him during the mass evacuation. Together, they race to warn Aether of the dangers they might face if they re-enter the planet.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UO9-FSAcV-A?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>In a roundtable interview with reporters from the Philippines and Singapore, Clooney shared what attracted him to the project, as well as the challenges he encountered while doing it.</p><p>For Clooney, the script was a big factor, which made him want to play the part of Augustine.</p><p>“It’s a great part. You can’t go wrong with a role like this. And then I called Netflix and I said, ‘I think I have an idea about the movie and what it should be.’ It’s not an action film, but it’s much more of a meditation. It’s a meditation on life, a meditation of what we are capable of doing to one another if we are not careful. So I wanted to tell that story and luckily, Netflix said okay. They could have said no. They gave me the opportunity to shoot this film and make it the way I wanted to make it. The directing is fun,” he said.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/entertainment/12/15/ms-03.jpg"/><figcaption><em>Netflix</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Although plans were in place, Clooney said filming parts of the movie in Iceland wasn’t as easy as he expected because of its freezing weather. However, he gave credit to his young co-star, seven-year-old Caoilinn Springall, who braved the low temperature with him and the rest of the crew.</p><p>“The thing about Caoilinn is she’s 7 but she’s Irish so she’s tough. I’m not kidding. I’d be like freezing, standing there and she’s like [just so relaxed]. When the wind storm would come, we would be standing there, we would be strung together by strings so that we can’t get lost because once it comes in, you can’t see anything.</p><p>“The camera guys have three guys holding the camera guy. And you could see this wall coming towards you and you know it’s about to hit. The minute you get into this hurricane for five minutes, it’s really, really amazing and challenging. Great for an actor, hard for a director,” he said.</p><p>Another bump they encountered while filming was when Jones got pregnant in real life while they were in the middle of making the movie.</p><p>“It changed everything. When she first called me, we were already shooting. We shot all my stuff first. We started in October and she’s not gonna start until the first of the year. She called me in the middle of October while I’m in Iceland and she says, ‘I’m pregnant.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh no,’” he said.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/entertainment/12/15/ms-02_1.jpg"/><figcaption><em>Netflix</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Clooney said they tried to shoot around it over the New Year and it just didn’t work.</p><p>“What we realized was, I woke up in the middle of the night so I called up Netflix, I called up Felicity and said, ‘You’re pregnant. You’ve been away for two years. You fell in love. You got pregnant. Things happen.’ And women go to work every day pregnant. And they don’t talk about it, it’s not a big deal. She said she’d love it,” Clooney recalled.</p><p>By the time they got to the end of the movie, Clooney said none of them could imagine it without Jones’ character being pregnant “because there’s a continuum to it.”</p><p>“They’ve been listening the whole film for any sign of life from Earth. And finally they find that life is inside her. That to me was a beautiful thing,” he said.</p><p>Meanwhile, Clooney also shared what made him decide to go with Ethan Peck to play his younger self instead of just undergoing digital de-aging.</p><p>“I don’t think the digitally de-aging thing particularly worked. When I saw it in &#x27;The Irishman,&#x27; I loved the film, but it’s a very tricky thing because all of a sudden, all you’re doing is watching that. It becomes sort of the story on its own and it’s all you can think of. So I knew I wasn’t gonna play the part,” he started.</p><p>Clooney also said most people know how he looked like when he was 35 years old so he knew he had to get somebody to come in.</p><p>“Ethan came in and he’s a wonderful actor. I’m 5-foot 11 inches, he’s like 6-foot, 3 inches. He’s really handsome. He’s Gregory Peck’s grandson’s for God’s sake. He walks in and he’s got this deep voice and I looked over Grant, my producing partner and I said, ‘That’s the guy.’ And Grant was like, ‘He’s too tall, he’s too good looking.’ I was like, ‘I’m casting it. I’m casting who I want. I want Ethan Peck,’” he recalled.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/entertainment/12/15/ms-01.jpg"/><figcaption><em>Netflix</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Clooney said what Peck did was “a brave thing for a young actor to do,” revealing that they had to deconstruct both their voices during the process and blend their performances to fit the story.</p><p>Clooney agreed that ultimate theme of “The Midnight Sky” about communicating and trying to be in touch with one another could not be more relevant at the present time during a pandemic.</p><p>“Well it is relevant now, that’s unfortunate. You don’t relish the idea that the story becomes more relevant in the middle of a pandemic. That’s an unfortunate side effect. But those themes were always right,” he said.</p><p>“We are always seeking a way to communicate and seeking a way to be home and be near the people we love. We are always questioning our actions and whether or not we are doing enough. All of those things play out in this film. It is unfortunate that it is timely. It shouldn’t be. With any luck in a few months, we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel with these vaccine possibilities,” he added.</p><p>After seeing the movie, all Clooney wants is for its viewers to feel more hopeful “that this whole experiment of mankind is worth it.”</p><p>“It should be a warning shot about what we are capable of doing to one another if we don’t pay attention. It should be a warning shot about denying science or creating divisiveness and hatred and being unkind to one another. But it should also be hopeful with the idea saying that this whole experiment of mankind is worth it. It’s worth the effort,” he said.</p><p>“I think that’s what we’re trying to say in the film, which is it is worth fighting as hard as they fight to live. We are looking at a pandemic right now. It’s causing a lot of panic, heartbreak, angst. It’s scaring people. I think we have to remember that everything we are facing right now is manmade. If man made it, then man can unmake it. That’s hopeful to me.”</p><p>“The Midnight Sky” will become available on Netflix on December 23.</p><div><strong>Related video:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/48ounz7t-30?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Seven years since starring in “Gravity,” Hollywood A-lister George Clooney returns with a new space drama with his upcoming Netflix movie “The Midnight Sky.”</p>

Seven years since starring in “Gravity,” Hollywood A-lister George Clooney returns with a new space drama with his upcoming Netflix movie “The Midnight Sky.”

George Clooney wants his new movie 'Midnight Sky' to bring hope to viewers

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George Clooney wants his new movie 'Midnight Sky' to bring hope to viewers

Shiela Reyes,

ABS-CBN News

Published December 15, 2020 01:05 PM PHT

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Updated December 15, 2020 01:06 PM PHT

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George Clooney

The Midnight Sky

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