20th Century Fox has dropped the first trailer for Brad Pitt’s Ad Astra, a sci-fi thriller due in theater September 20th. The action-packed trailer shows Pitt as an astronaut who has to help save the Earth when he discovers his father, played by Tommy Lee Jones, has been doing threatening experiments in space. “All life could be destroyed,” Pitt’s character is told. “We’re counting on you to find out what’s happening out there.”
Directed by James Gray, the film’s official synopsis reads, “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.” Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland are also part of the cast.
Pitt produced the film through his Plan B production company, and the film was written by Gray and Ethan Gross. Gray told Collider in 2017 that he was interested in making a realistic science fiction movie. “The science-fiction genre is so tricky because there are elements of fantasy usually involved, and there are also fantastical elements,” the director said. “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.”
