Fox has released a new trailer for James Gray's sci-fi adventure, Ad Astra. The upcoming film is one of many that were either finished or close to being completed when Disney finalized its purchase of Fox's entertainment assets back in March. And while the movie has already changed release dates once since then, its shift from May to September makes sense and positions Ad Astra for a potential awards season run in the fall (following its likely premiere at the Venice Film Festival ahead of then).
Directed by Gray from a screenplay that he wrote with Ethan Gross (Fringe), Ad Astra follows astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) as he journeys to the outer regions of our solar system, in an effort to find his long-missing father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones) and discover the truth behind a mystery that threatens all human life on earth. As seen in the trailer released last month, Roy is sent on his mission after nearly being killed during an event referred to as The Surge - an incident that's seemingly connected to a secret operation that Clifford was working on, before he vanished.
Having already dropped a new poster this week, Fox has now unveiled the second Ad Astra trailer online. You can check it out in the space below, along with the latest one-sheet.
The new Ad Astra trailer places a heavy emphasis on Roy's relationship with his father and even starts off with Pitt's astronaut recounting his childhood with Clifford for a message that will, presumably, be sent into space in an effort to reach the latter. However, as Donald Sutherland's character tries to warn him, there's a strong possibility that Clifford has gone full Colonel Kurtz (a la Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now) and is going out of his way to avoid making contact with those on earth. The trailer certainly suggests as much, between the shots of Jones looking angry and glimpses of what appears to be a chase sequence involving (space) dune buggies on the surface of a moon.
Heart of Darkness has been a clear influence on Gray's work in the past (most notably, 2017's The Lost City of Z) to positive effect, so the filmmaker seems to be comfortably in his wheelhouse with Ad Astra. The visuals also continue to impress in the new trailer and confirm that Gray's vision of outer space is even more realistic - and, as a result, dazzling yet terrifying - than similar recent sci-fi adventures like Gravity and The Martian. And while Liv Tyler (The Leftovers) doesn't seem to have a lot to do as Roy's wife here, the new preview suggests that Ruth Negga (Preacher) might yet have a significant role to play alongside Pitt and the others, which is very much welcome news.
Source: 20th Century Fox
