Ad Astra is a new film by director James Gray starring Brad Pitt. It made its worldwide premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts!
- Ad Astra is a 2019 American science fiction adventure film
- It is produced, co-written, and directed by James Gray
- Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland
- It follows an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the solar system
- The project was announced in early 2016
- With Gray saying he wanted to feature “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie”
- Pitt signed on to star in April 2017
- And the rest of the cast joined later that year
- Filming began around Los Angeles that August
- Lasting through October
- Ad Astra had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019
- It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on September 20, 2019, by 20th Century Fox
- It received positive reviews from critics
- With Pitt’s performance receiving universal praise
- Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) 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 humans on Earth
- His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and its place in the cosmos
- Director James Gray first confirmed his plans to write and direct Ad Astra on May 12, 2016
- During the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
- In April 2017, while promoting The Lost City of Z, Gray compared the story of Ad Astra to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
- Gray also mentioned that he intended for the film to feature “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie and to basically say, ‘Space is awfully hostile to us”
- Gray also confirmed that filming for Ad Astra would commence on July 17, 2017
- On April 10, 2017, James Gray confirmed that Brad Pitt would star in Ad Astra
- In June, Tommy Lee Jones joined the cast to portray Pitt’s lost father
- In August, Ruth Negga, John Finn, Donald Sutherland and Jamie Kennedy joined the cast
- Principal photography on the film began in mid-August 2017 in Santa Clarita, California
- Lasting 60 days
- The visual effects are provided by Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Mr. X, Weta Digital, Brainstorm Digital, and Capital T
- And Supervised by Christopher Downs, Guillaume Rocheron, Ryan Tudhope, Aidan Fraser, Olaf Wendt, Anders Langlands, Eran Dinur, and Jamie Hallett and Territory Studio
- Ad Astra had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019
- It is scheduled to be released on September 20, 2019, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
- It was previously scheduled for January 11, 2019
- And then for May 24 before being pushed back
- In the United States and Canada, Ad Astra will be released alongside Downton Abbey and Rambo: Last Blood
- And is projected to gross $17- 20 million in its opening weekend
- On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84%
- Based on 56 reviews
- With an average rating of 7.76/10
- The website’s critical consensus reads: “Ad Astra takes a visually thrilling journey through the vast reaches of space while charting an ambitious course for the heart of the bond between parent and child”
- On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 80 out of 100
- Based on 19 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
Got anything to add?