Yesterday, Comic-Con attendees were wowed by the surprise appearance of Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey, both making their Con debuts, at the panel for this fall’s highly anticipated Interstellar. More than 6,000 people were in attendance for the panel, which took place in Comic-Con’s fabled Hall H.
After some enigmatic small talk, Nolan cut to the chase and unveiled new footage from Interstellar, which isn’t intended to hit the web for a while. According to attendees, the footage was impressive and shows off a lot of the stunning space locations that the director shot for Interstellar.
Though multiple trailers have been released for the movie already, Nolan has done a solid job of keeping plot details under wraps. What do we know so far? Interstellar is set in a near-future version of Earth where climate change has made the planet increasingly inhospitable for humankind. In hopes of mastering interstellar travel and locating a new world for humanity to populate, a group of scientists (including characters played by McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway) is sent off into the great unknown.
In the new footage, co-star Michael Caine is heard reciting “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” as the scientists explore potential new worlds for humankind to settle on (including “a massive chasm with icy, rocky peaks on the top and bottom like a fearsome terrain of mountainous teeth”). During the panel, Nolan expressed his love for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it appears he’s attempting something comparably ambitious with this film.
Said Nolan:
“I’ve always been a huge fan of science fiction. I’d grown up being amazed by science fiction of the past, obviously Star Wars and 2001. These are things that made an incredible impression on me. But more than that, I grew up in an era when to be an astronaut was the highest ambition of any child.”
The director also gave his take on the greater meaning of the movie:
“It’s really about human beings, and what it means to be human, and what our place is in the universe.”
Check out the latest trailer for Interstellar below if you need yet another reminder for why we should all be rabidly anticipating the film’s release on November 7th.