Not many of us are called to stories that center the Midwest, but for writer-director Noble Jones, who is a native New Yorker, there has always been something beautiful about small-town America.
In his debut feature, The Tomorrow Man, Jones explores aging, love and the fear of what’s next. Starring John Lithgow and Blythe Danner as two older people who clutch on to one another in the midst of apocalyptic trepidation, The Tomorrow Man is a whimsical look at companionship and what it means to face death.
Ahead of the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, The Knockturnal sat down to chat with Jones about The Tomorrow Man, getting Lithgow and Danner together on screen, and why this is a film for today.
“I’m not quite sure why it ends up being about an older couple,” Jones reflected on his characters Ed (Lithgow) and Ronnie (Danner). “Much of this process is likes a séance, where the character shows up. I have a habit of just creating characters and then ripping for a while. In this case, I just thought it was interesting. I’m a fan of John Ford films and the west. I was watching all of these Ken Burns documentaries, specifically, The West. I put it on a loop.”
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