When do movie stars show their life’s work to their children? It’s a reflection that you often here A-list celebrities talking about when they finally decide to lend their pipes to an animated feature. “Well, I wanted a movie on the resume that my young kids could watch, you know?” At least, that’s what I use when I try to explain to myself why Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro both did the 2004 animated comedy Shark Tale.
Which brings us to George Clooney, the 59-year-old father of three-year-old twins. They’re certainly not going to stay focused on their father’s black-and-white directorial effort, Good Night. And Good Luck. Nor are the twins ready for the insanity that is Burn After Reading! But when CinemaBlend spoke with Clooney about his upcoming sci-fi thriller The Midnight Sky (which has a strong parental vibe all the way through it), we asked if parenthood has changed Clooney’s mind about the types of stories that he wants to tell as an actor and as a director, and his answer is in the video above.
Of course, George Clooney wasn’t thinking about the fact that he’d be a parent when he was making movies like From Dusk til Dawn or Out of Sight. At the time of the Ocean’s trilogy, Clooney was just interested in making entertaining movies, and having fun with his high-profile friends like Matt Damon, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt.
Now, however, George Clooney is looking back on his filmography with a discerning eye. And as he told us, this is what he has discovered:
I know that my wife and I went through my films [for] what the kids could watch? And it was kind of like, ‘Well, they can watch Fantastic Mr. Fox. And then after that, it’s kind of… they can watch Batman and Robin for a laugh!’ But other than that, you kind of run out of things that a three-year-old’s going to be allowed to see. I probably will have to look at some Sesame Street: The Movie kind of thing soon.
Well, now I want to see George Clooney starring in and directing Sesame Street: The Movie in the near future. Could you imagine Brad Pitt eating cookies with Cookie Monster, or Don Cheadle arguing with Oscar the Grouch? This is a money making idea, Hollywood. Remember where you first heard it.
The Midnight Sky has nothing to do with Sesame Street, but it does have a gifted child actress in it. Clooney plays one of the last survivors of a mysterious global plague who spends his final days trying to communicate with a space shuttle that is returning to Earth. He wants to tell the crew to turn around, that our planet no longer is hospitable. But his mission is disrupted when a mute young girl (Caoilinn Springall) shows up at his facility, needing his assistance.
The movie currently is enjoying a limited theatrical run before landing on Netflix on December 23, 2020.
