Movies

Brad Pitt Is Astronaut Roy McBride In First Trailer For James Gray’s AD ASTRA

By Michelle McCue | June 5, 2019

The answers we seek are just outside our reach.

20th Century Fox has released the official trailer and poster for AD ASTRA. Starring Brad Pitt, the film follows an astronaut as he travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father. The mission unravels a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet.

Directed by James Gray, AD ASTRA stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland.

AD ASTRA arrives in theaters everywhere on September 20, 2019 from The Walt Disney Studios.

Watch the official trailer.

I love that this is being released close to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon mission. Gray has previously helmed Little Odessa, The Yards, We Own The Night, Two Lovers, The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z.

The film is co-written by Ethan Gross who worked for three seasons on the FOX science-fiction series Fringe, as executive story editor and writer.

Here’s the official SYNOPSIS:

Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

The score is by Max Richter, with cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema.

From Collider’s interview with Gray in 2017.

Gray co-wrote a film called Ad Astra with Ethan Ross that revolves around a slightly autistic engineer whose father left 20 years ago on a one-way mission to Neptune in order to find signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence. As an adult, he now sets out to travel the solar system to find his father and discover why his mission failed.

With Lost City of Z now hitting theaters, word came that Gray was eyeing Ad Astra—which has been in the works for a year—as his next film, with Brad Pitt potentially starring no less. So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with Gray at the press day for Lost City of Z, he asked if Ad Astra is indeed his next project with Pitt in the starring role:

“Yes, yes, and yes. I’m terrified by it. The science-fiction genre is so tricky because there are elements of fantasy usually involved, and there are also fantastical elements. What I’m trying to do is the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say, ‘Space is awfully hostile to us.’ It’s kind of a Heart of Darkness story about traveling to the outer edge of our solar system. I have a lot of hopes for it but it is certainly ambitious… It starts shooting July 17th, so not too far away. I’m filled with terror, but that’s fine (laughs).”
http://collider.com/james-gray-brad-pitt-ad-astra-filming/