The premiere of Ad Astra is just weeks away, and 20th Century Fox has released a special preview to up the excitement. The clip gives a quick look at the action-filled "Moon Rover" sequence and gives a few more details about the film's unique setting.
Starring Brad Pitt, Ad Astra is a paranoid thriller in space that follows Roy McBride (Pitt) on a mission across an unforgiving solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the universe.
The captivating new clip opens with our main character, Roy, preparing to travel across the moon's surface to the "far side launch complex." It's not an easy task, which Sean Blakemore's Willy Levant makes clear when he says this.
"We've been having trouble with pirates since September. Some countries been giving them safe haven. They'll take hostages or go for our rovers. It's like the Wild West out there."
Our protagonist sets off with fellow astronauts, and as Roy admires the "big blue marble" that is the Earth in the distance, unidentified rovers immediately approach them. Two allied rovers go down and Roy is forced to take the drivers seat when one of his men is shot. With a puncture in his suit, Roy continues on. He's outnumbered and the enemies are closing in quick. The clip ends with Roy, just before he reaching his destination, getting hit. With a camera rigged to the rover, he spins off the ledge. Despite the action elements, great care is put towards the tone and setting of the film with minimal score and a slow motion crash.
Ad Astra stars Brad Pitt alongside Tommy Lee Jones (No Country For Old Men), Ruth Negga (Preacher), Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings) and Donald Sutherland (The Hunger Games), as well as Kimberly Elise and Jamie Kennedy.
This will mark director James Gray's (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant) first large scale science fiction project, and it looks to have the right team behind it. Gray is working from a script he co-wrote with Ethan Gross as well as serving as producer. Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar) helped create the epic, stunning visuals, and the film is produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira and Arnon Milchan.
This will be one of the first big-budget films to be released since Walt Disney Studios announced it would be clearing much of Fox's slate after the disappointing performance from Dark Pheonix. The media conglomerate inherited the film in its $71.3 billion dollar acquisition, along with a spattering of other franchises including Avatar, Aliens, X-Men, Deadpool, Planet of the Apes, Die Hard, Ice Age and more.
Ad Astra hits theaters on September 20, 2019, and will arrive in stunning IMAX as well. You can pre-order tickets now at adastramovie.com, and check out the new clip on 20th Century Fox's Official Youtube channel.