To celebrate the 7th anniversary of the theatrical release of Tomorrowland, The Tomorrowland Times Podcast is proud to present a special interview with legendary storyboard artist Marc Vena. His work on the film encompassed several key sequences, including a few tantalizing omissions!
Marc was kind enough to give us permission to cut together a story reel of his boards for one of the movie's most intriguing deleted scenes. This version of the "Boat Ride" sequence features more backstory for the Plus Ultra secret society, which would eventually become the Origin of Plus Ultra animated short.
This deleted sequence was filmed and CG models were drafted by ILM, but it was never finished, having been excised prior to the reshoots which restructured the film.
There's no delicate way to share this news, but Athena's corpse just sold — alongside several other pieces of original Tomorrowland make-up effects — as part of the Bill Terezakis estate auction.
Legendary make-up effects artist Bill Terezakis passed away in June of 2021, and the contents of his WCT Productions facility were auctioned today by Direct Liquidation in Canada. He was credited on Tomorrowland as "Special Make-up Effects", a position which he also served on Disney's Tron: Legacy and dozens of other Hollywood productions.
Included in the Tomorrowland lots were several versions of Ursula Gernsback's (Kathryn Hahn's) decapitated head, as well as multiple Dave Clarks, and even a full-scale young Frank figure. Molds without production castings were also available, including the Plus Ultra Jules Verne and Thomas Edison mannequins.
We attempted to acquire several lots for our eventual Tomorrowland Times Museum of the Future, but were mostly unsuccessful. The level of bidding competition, while disappointing for us, hopefully indicates a renewed interest in the film. We will remain optimistic that Athena, Ursula, and the gang found a good home.
While all the lots labelled "Tomorrowland" (and, humorously, "Tomorrow Land") fetched a hefty sum, there were a few items from the film in Bill's estate that the liquidation company was not able to identify, and we were able to obtain. Stay tuned for more on our acquisitions for the Tomorrowland Times Archive.
Would you love to see Tomorrowland again on the big screen?
Dreamers in Japan may have that opportunity thanks to the Dreampass on-demand cinema service. This program allows audience members to vote for films they would like to see screened in their local theater, with Tomorrowland being one of the films currently available.
While the film has not yet crossed the threshold for screening at the time of this writing, its official availability on the platform alongside a limited selected of other titles speaks to Disney's willingness to keep the film in circulation, which was uncertain considering its recent disappearance from the Disney+ streaming service in the United States.
With any luck this form of audience-driven theatrical screening service will make its way to domestic cinema chains in the future, and your community's next showing of Tomorrowland could be just one vote organizing campaign away.
With the long-awaited debut of Tomorrowland streaming worldwide on Disney+, Hastin and Nick sit down to welcome a new batch of Dreamers, Optimists, and Junior Tomorrownauts into the fandom on the Tomorrowland Times Podcast:
Sadly, the movie is not streaming in UHD nor DolbyVision on Disney+, even as the first movie with an all-4K post pipeline. Also, the extras tab does not include the essential "Origin of Plus Ultra" animated short that director Brad Bird fought to have attached to the film.
Additionally, the most requested Tomorrowland deleted scenes are not available on Disney+, remaining Movies Anywhere exclusives. Viewers who want to see the Carousel of Progress or young Frank's harvester automaton will still have to register a digital copy on that service.
It's a disappointing debut overall for Tomorrowland fans, but hopefully wide availability on the popular streaming service will allow the film to reach a new audience. With any luck, a 4K home release is still on the horizon ... perhaps for it's 10th anniversary?
In any case, we will continue to carry the torch and provide a home for wayward fans to assemble around this budding cult classic. Dreamers, after all, need to stick together.
Five years ago today, Tomorrowland was release theatrically.
Throughout its fifth anniversary year, we'll be doing a scene-by-scene deep dive analysis of the movie on The Tomorrowland Times Podcast, launching today with a look back at our years of speculation leading up to the release.
