We finally know something about Tomorrowland that is not mere speculation. It seems all those entertainment news outlets claiming the story was inspired by the Disneyland attraction were actually right. Nevertheless, screenwriter Damon Lindelof recently revealed to Grantland in a long yet interesting interview that the theme park or the attraction itself would not be shown in the film. If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, you probably know it’s for the best. Nevertheless, he did mention that he’d love to give the ride a story, much like there was a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
The juiciest piece of evidence comes later on in the interview, though. Remember the mystery box that director Brad Bird tweeted a while ago? Well, Lindelof had a thing to say or two about it.
This box. This box is — ironically or fortuitously or coincidentally, or maybe this is why I was interested in it, it’s another infamous mystery box, except this mystery box can be opened and displayed and shared. I will say that by the end of this summer, summer of ’13, we will be giving an explicit sort of curation of what inspired the movie, and then people will at least have a sense of what we’re excited about doing, if not the story. That history of the company is really amazing, particularly the history of the parks. The Disney company went public, and then Walt started WED, which was his little black-ops division. He hired these guys to start developing these really interesting ideas, some of which got made and some of which didn’t, some of which have been seen, some of which haven’t. […] And this box was in with that stuff. You know, what was it doing there? Who knows — but what’s more exciting is there’s probably, like, 50 boxes like that waiting.
Let’s just all agree that 50 Disney mystery boxes being locked in a room somewhere sounds pretty dang intriguing. Hopefully Lindelof will be able to get his hands on more of these and reveal the details in future interviews. I’d be more than happy to get a look at early sketches of classic Disney characters.
So far, Academy Award winner George Clooney is the only confirmed cast member for Tomorrowland, which will hit theaters on December 19, 2014.