Featurette For George Clooney's THE MIDNIGHT SKY - 40 Below: Extreme Filmmaking
Netflix has released a new featurette for George Clooney’s upcoming post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama The Midnight Sky. Clooney directs and stars in the film, and in the video below he talks about shooting his most ambitious film yet in the extreme conditions of the glaciers of Iceland. He also discusses the challenges of being in front of and behind the camera.
One thing he makes perfectly clear is, “I hate being cold more than anything in the world.” But, he embraced the rough conditions to make this movie and tell the story he wanted to tell.
Clooney plays a lonely scientist living in the artic named Augustine who believes he is one of the last men on earth until he comes across a little girl named Iris. Not only does he find himself in a position to take care of the girl, but he also learns that a group of astronauts that have been on a long mission are returning home, and Augustine has to try and stop them from returning because of a mysterious global catastrophe that has made Earth uninhabitable.
Clooney is joined by a wonderful group of actors that includes Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir and Kyle Chandler, with young Caoilinn Springall in her first major film role.
When previously talking about the story, Clooney said:
“It’s science fiction, which unfortunately is less fictional as we move through the days. The sickness of hate and the elements that come from that, battles and wars — that has been percolating for quite some time.
“I wanted it to be about redemption in a way. I wanted there to be some hopefulness in a fairly bleak story about the end of mankind.”
The Midnight Sky is based on the book by Lily Brooks-Dalton and I’ll be looking forward to watching it when it drops on Netflix on December 23rd.