Besides being one of the most consecrated actors in Hollywood, George Clooney also likes to get often behind the cameras. Normally, it is to give voice to historical characters with a political and social background, like in his movies Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Leatherheads (2008), The Ides of March (2011), and The Monuments Men (2014), although his latest directional work to date was crime comedy Suburbicon (2017), written by his pals the Coen Brothers. Today, his new project as a director, producer, and main star is The Midnight Sky (2020), a fantasy and science-fiction tale about a scientist who must venture through the Arctic Circle with a young girl to warn off a returning spaceship following a global catastrophe.
Described by George Clooney himself as “Gravity (2013) meets The Revenant (2015)”, the movie centers on ambitious scientist Augustine Lofthouse, who works towards finding habitable planets where humanity could expand. After a cataclysmic event decimates most of the Earth, killing almost all of the population with powerful radiation, Augustine is working in the Arctic. Alone, he tries to contact any space mission hoping to warn them about the situation on Earth but finds that most of them have been dismantled. Only one mission, the spacecraft Æther, is still active and currently returning from Jupiter after having discovered a habitable moon, K-23. On board, the crew is unaware of the events on Earth. Augustine attempts to contact them, but the antenna is too weak to reach the ship.
The Midnight Sky (2020) is the movie adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight. The screenplay was written by Mark L. Smith, also responsible for the scripts for Séance (2006), which he was his directional debut, Vacancy (2007) and its sequel Vacancy 2: The First Cut (2008), Joe Dante’s The Hole (2009), the forgettable American remake Martyrs (2015), and has also been co-writer of The Revenant (2015) and Overlord (2018).
Besides George Clooney playing the main role, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone, and Sophie Rundle complete the main cast.
The Midnight Sky (2020) is Rated PG-13 for some bloody images and brief strong language. The movie had a limited theatrical release on December 11, 2020, and today December 23, 2020, is out worldwide on Netflix. The movie received some praise for its “ambition and emotional tone“. Here you can watch its official trailer.
