Brad Pitt is space-bound this fall in 20th Century Fox’s ‘Ad Astra’, directed by James Gray.
Ad Astra follows Astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) who travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. Ruth Negga, Jamie Kennedy, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler, John Finn, Kimberly Elise, Bobby Nish, LisaGay Hamilton, and John Ortiz co-star.
A new TV spot has been released online via Twitter:
The answers we seek are just outside our reach. See Ad Astra, in theaters September 20. pic.twitter.com/x2KyNNmCaA
— Ad Astra (@adastramovie) July 7, 2019
‘Ad Astra’ was viewed as an awards season hopeful and was originally set for release in January, with it opening in a few theaters in December in order to qualify, but it doesn’t appear that it was ready. It was then set to debut at the Canne Film Festival in May and to be released in theaters on May 24, but it was once again delayed. (No official reason was given, but it’s likely it was moved to prevent it from competing with Disney’s ‘Aladdin’.) Finally, it appears that ‘Ad Astra’ has a solid release date of September 20. If Disney and Fox really want this to be an awards contender, that release date makes a lot more sense than a spring/summer release, as films released earlier in the year tend to be forgotten by the end of the year when movies are nominated.
RELATED: Disney Pulls Brad Pitt Sci-Fi Movie ‘Ad Astra’ From Its May 24 Release Date
Pitt has another film opening soon, which may also land in the awards pool, ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, directed by Quentin Tarantino, and co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie.
Gray co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Gross, and has compared ‘Ad Astra’ to Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. He also stated that it would include “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say, ‘Space is awfully hostile to us.’”
‘Ad Astra’ blasts off on September 20, 2019.
