News first broke in mid-2012 that director Brad Bird and writer Damon Lindelof were teaming up for a highly secretive sci-fi movie going by the code name ‘1952’. Then, earlier this year, it was revealed the true title of the project was revealed as ‘Tomorrowland’, along with a box of seemingly random objects that inspired the film. Now, in addition to beginning production in Canada, the movie has started making moves by appearing at this year’s D23 Expo in Anaheim this past weekend and showing the brand new logo and some “found footage” from the infamous box.

According to /Film, when Bird and Lindelof took the stage to talk about ‘Tomorrowland’, they brought the black box with them to show off some of the contents inside like an issue of ‘Amazing Stories’ magazine from August 1928, a dried up piece of parchment with a blueprint of the ‘It’s A Small World’ ride on it, and a fake picture of Walt Disney and Amelia Earhart from 1945, many years after her mysterious disappearance. But the highlight of the treasures inside the box was a record disc dated November 1963 that contained some animated footage featuring the dawn of humanity, ancient Greece, and the World’s Fair in Paris in 1989 with a voiceover that sounded a lot like Orson Welles:

“There’s no such thing as fate. And fellow traveler, that’s why you were invited here. At long last we are building that tomorrow. A shining beacon of hope. In just 20 short years, we will share this extraordinary place with the entire world. Would you like to see it?”

Then, for everyone who wasn’t able to attend the D23 presentation, Lindelof unveiled the new ‘Tomorrowland’ app that spotlights each item of inspiration contained in the box. Here’s the tweet with the link to the app, followed by the description of what you can find in it:

 

Explore the mystery of The 1952 Collection that inspired the new movie from the director of ‘The Incredibles’ and the creator/writer of ‘Lost’, which takes as its title the word that encapsulates Walt Disney’s stirring brand of futurism: Tomorrowland. Download the app to explore the “1952” exhibition revealed at Disney’s D23 Conference including images and artifacts from the Disney archives.

Finally, the writer stopped by to talk to Collider about the film after he got off the stage. In the interview, he discussed a number of interesting topics like when the Imagineers first got involved with the project, the extensive viral marketing (or “live storytelling”) taking place around the Disney parks, and their whole scheme just to create cool pins. You can hear about all that and more in the video below:

There’s so much going on to promote this movie already and they’ve barely started shooting anything. With such an elaborate lead-in, we can only hope that the final product lives up to the hype. Do you think that it will? Share your thoughts on the former 1952 mystery project in the comments below.

‘Tomorrowland’ starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Thomas Robinson, and Britt Robertson is scheduled for release on December 12, 2014.