As you all know by now Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, and George Clooney are developing an intriguing sci-fi alien invasion film for Disney under the name 1952. A few little details here and there have hit the internet, but for most of it we don't know what's true or not. Two things we know for sure are that the story centers on aliens and that the creative team is looking to recapture the spirit of Steven Spielberg's classic movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The second thing was confirmed by Lindelof and Bird when they tweeted out these two photos of a box marked 1952, and the contents of that box. For those of you who don't remember the story behind the box, here it is...
When Lindelof had a meeting to discuss the project with Disney’s head of production, Sean Bailey, the Disney exec arranged for Lindelof to be given access to one of the studio's odder curiosities: a banker’s box of files and documents that had been left moldering in Walt Disney’s personal development lab, WED Enterprises, which later became the studio’s vaunted Imagineering department. The box was originally labeled with the title of the studio’s 1965 comedy That Darn Cat!, which had been crossed out and in its place was written '1952.' Inside was a random-at-first-glance collection of documents and primary source materials that, when looked at all together, indicated that someone had been working on a project (movie? theme park ride?) about alien contact.
So it looks as if the whole box story is true, which is pretty damn cool! Lindeloff added a small note with the photos that simply says "The Box," and Bird's note said "Box Open." Now I'm even more excited to see what's being planned for the film! This is going to be a really fun movie to follow over the next couple of years.
The question is... what do the contents of the box mean? Maybe Walt Disney had hard evidence that UFOs actually existed. The box includes photos of Walt Disney and a 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, that includes cover art from Frank Paul. Who know what it all means but it's intriguging, and whatever kind of game these guys are playing, I want to play.
