First look at George Clooney’s Netflix film The Midnight Sky sees Earth ravaged by ‘global catastrophe’
A SNEAK peek at George Clooney’s new film on Netflix called The Midnight Sky show a tense apocalyptic thriller.
Clooney, 59, directs and stars in the feature film which follows his character, Augustine, as he races to stop a group of astronauts returning to Earth after a global catastrophe.
The Oscar winner plays the lonely scientist in the Arctic in the film based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s acclaimed novel Good Morning, Midnight.
Also starring is Felicity Jones (Rogue One: A Star Wars Stoary) who plays lead astronaut Sully who is heading home to a mysterious global catastrophe.
The drama will follow Sully’s NASA crew in 2049 after they discover a habitable moon around Jupiter.
But a communication blackout means they only learn of the major catastrophe as they head back to Earth.
All the while Clooney’s Augustine – who may the last man on the planet – is trying to save them by stopping them from getting back.
But Augustine must also look after a little girl called Iris (Caoilinn Springall) who managed to join the evacuation to the Arctic and relies totally on him to stay alive.
“He wasn’t really into protecting himself at all,” Clooney told .
“The little girl is a problem for him, because now he actually has to take care of someone.”
The adaptation also co-stars David Oyelowo (Selma), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), Demián Bichir (Alien: Covenant) and Tiffany Boone (Hunters).
Mark L. Smith adapted the screenplay from the novel and Clooney also serves as producer.
The Midnight Sky drops on the streaming giant in December.
Clooney spoke about making the movie before the coronavirus pandemic and how the film has taken on a different meaning since.
“There wasn’t the pandemic, and we hadn’t set the whole West Coast on fire,” he said.
“I mean, the picture we show of Earth [in the movie] doesn’t look that much different than the satellite pictures of the West Coast right now.”
He added: “It’s science fiction, which unfortunately is less fictional as we move through the days.”
The actor also opened up about ageing, and while he’s famous for his salt and pepper good looks, Clooney claims he’s not looking so good lately.
“I don’t look so good,” he said.
“I’m not even 60 yet, but the character is 70. Unfortunately, I’m looking closer to that. I’ve always looked a little older, but now I really look like I am.”
“I just took a shaver and shaved all my hair off, and I tried to do it kind of badly so that it looked patchy,” he said of his rugged looks in the film.
“Since he is clearly dying of something that he has to have a transfusion for, which is usually some form of cancer, it was important to me to add some elements so that I didn’t look like I look normally.”
“I have had a lot of people, the first couple of shots in the movie, not realize it’s me.
“They’re like, ‘That’s you?’ My wife was very happy when I finished shooting this.”
Clooney married international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney in 2014 and the couple are parents to twins, Alexander and Ella.
His breakout acting role was on medical TV drama E.R where he played Dr Doug Ross for five years.
He first turned his hand to directing in 2002 with biographical spy drama, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Clooney also directed Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Leatherheads (2008), the political drama The Ideas of March (2011) and The Monuments of Men (2014).