Ad Astra (film)

Development

Director and co-writer James Gray had originally met co-writer Ethan Gross while attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts together in the late 1980s. In June 2007, Gross contacted Gray, pitching the idea of a sci-fi film inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The two worked on the story intermittently, referring to it initially as Lima Project. On February 21, 2013, Gray and Gross would pitch the concept to producers Rodrigo Teixeira and Sophie Mas of RT Pictures at Babbo, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan. After Teixeira and Mas agreed to finance the screenwriting process, Gray and Gross would submit several drafts between November 29, 2013, and May 22, 2015, partly to solicit feedback from producers and colleagues: some of the changes made in this period included changing the character of John Gates, a father figure to main character Roy McBride, to Roy's actual father, before further rewriting the story so that the father was killed while in a cryogenic state, rather than in an active confrontation in earlier drafts. In addition, the story had originally been set on Saturn, but the release of Interstellar (2014) caused the setting to be moved to Neptune to draw more of a distinction between the two films.^[9]

Gray first confirmed his plans to write and direct Ad Astra on May 12, 2016, during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.^[10] Six months later, Gray would consult theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss to assist in improving the film's scientific accuracy: one major change that resulted from this was the removal of a plot point regarding antimatter being found on Neptune.^[9]

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.^[11]

Casting

In August 2016, while Gray was screening The Lost City of Z to producer Brad Pitt, the former had a conversation with the latter to discuss Ad Astra. Pitt expressed interest and agreed to both star in and co-produce the film;^[9] on April 10, 2017, Gray publicly confirmed that Pitt would star in Ad Astra.^[11] In June, Tommy Lee Jones joined the cast to portray Pitt's lost father.^[12] In August, Ruth Negga, John Finn, and Donald Sutherland joined the cast.^[13][14][15]

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on August 10, 2017 in Santa Clarita, California, lasting 60 days.^{[9][16][17][18]} After initial post-production work, test screenings were held on May 30 and July 18, 2018;^[9] following poor reception, reshoots were conducted (although Pitt was unavailable), increasing the production budget from $80 million to over $100 million.^[3] The character of Eve, originally named Liv (the name being changed to avoid confusion with her actress, Liv Tyler), was added as a love interest, and new scenes were added to the film; the according reshoots began on March 15, 2019, and lasted for seven days.^[9] Charlie Kaufman provided an uncredited rewrite of the voice-over dialogue in the film.^[19] Gray did not have control over the film's final cut, which he told The Hollywood Reporter was "as painful a thing as I have experienced outside the death of a loved one."^[20]

The visual effects were by Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Mr. X, Weta Digital, Brainstorm Digital, and Capital T, and supervised by Allen Maris, Christopher Downs, Guillaume Rocheron, Ryan Tudhope, Aidan Fraser, Olaf Wendt, Anders Langlands, Eran Dinur, Jamie Hallett, and Territory Studio.^[21] Max Richter composed the film's score and recorded it at AIR Studios in London. Additionally, Lorne Balfe was asked to write additional music for the score. The orchestra and choir were then recorded at Synchron Stage Vienna.^[22][23] James Gray consulted with experimental film scholars Gregory Zinman and Leo Goldsmith for inspiration on the visuals.^[24]

The film's post-production was completed c. August 7, 2019, when Pitt recorded the rewritten voice-over dialogue.^[9]

Music

The film's soundtrack was composed by Max Richter with additional music contributed by Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Theatrical

Ad Astra had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019.^[25][26] and was released in the United States on September 20, 2019, by 20th Century Fox.^[27] The film received an early release in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France on September 18. It had previously been scheduled for January 11, 2019, and then for May 24 before being pushed back.^[28]

Home media

Ad Astra was released on digital and Movies Anywhere by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on December 3, 2019, with Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and DVD releases following on December 17.^[29]

Box office

Ad Astra grossed $50.2 million in the United States and Canada and $85 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $135.2 million, against an estimated production budget of $80 million.^[4]

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Downton Abbey and Rambo: Last Blood, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,450 theaters in its opening weekend.^[30][31] The film made $7.2 million on its first day, including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $19 million, finishing second behind Downton Abbey.^[32] The opening was compared to First Man (2018), another drama involving outer space which received high praise from critics but a lukewarm audience reception, resulting in a muted box office turnout despite its cast and budget. Deadline Hollywood deduced the film would lose $30 million off a projected $150 million final worldwide gross (a figure it would ultimately fall short of).^[3] The film made $10.1 million in its second weekend and $4.4 million in its third, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.^[33][34]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 399 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. 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."^[35] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 80 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[36] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an average 2.5 out of 5 stars, with 40% saying they would definitely recommend it.^[3]

Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film four out of four stars, writing that "This is rare, nuanced storytelling, anchored by one of Brad Pitt's career-best performances and remarkable technical elements on every level." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "In the hands of director and co-writer James Gray, Ad Astra is one of the most beautiful films of the year, even when it makes little sense and even when Brad Pitt's performance veers between one of his all-time best and one of his all-time not-best."^[37] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film an "A" and said, "Ad Astra is one of the most ruminative, withdrawn, and curiously optimistic space epics this side of Solaris. It's also one of the best."^[38] Similarly, Xan Brooks of The Guardian gave the film five out of five stars, called it a "superb space-opera", and praised Pitt's performance, saying, "Pitt embodies McBride with a series of deft gestures and a minimum of fuss. His performance is so understated it hardly looks like acting at all."^[39] Variety critic Owen Gleiberman praised Pitt's performance, explaining, "Gray proves beyond measure that he's got the chops to make a movie like this. He also has a vision, of sorts – one that's expressed, nearly inadvertently, in the metaphor of that space antenna."^[1] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film four out of five stars and referred to it as "absolutely enthralling" and praised Gray for his direction and his unique approach to the science fiction genre, as well as the cinematography and Pitt's performance (whom he referred to as "marvel of nuanced feeling"). He also drew comparisons of the film's tone and themes to other notable films set in space, particularly 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (1972), Gravity (2013), and Interstellar (2014).^[40] Mark Kermode of The Guardian compared the film to "Event Horizon with interstellar overdrive", noting the similar premise to the 1997 film.^[41]

Critic Kurt Loder praised the visual effects but criticized the lack of originality and the patchwork style of the script.^[42] Adam Graham writing for The Detroit News found problems with the film, giving it a "C" rating: "This is slow, obtuse film-making with little emotional connection."^[43]

Accolades