'The Midnight Sky' Featurette: George Clooney Hates The Cold

George Clooney hates cold. Probably because snow is cold, and wet, and gets everywhere. But he would sacrifice discomfort, even embrace it, for cinema. That's the thrust of the latest The Midnight Sky featurette, which Netflix has released ahead of the Clooney-directed sci-fi epic's release on the streaming service.

The Midnight Sky was a labor of love, especially from director-star Clooney, who overcame his aversion to the cold to shoot one of the most physically taxing films of his career. In the above featurette, Clooney speaks about navigating treacherous snowy terrain, facing 60 to 70 mph winds, and losing weight for the role — the latter of which leant to his performance as the last survivor of a plague who is dying of cancer, but made it more difficult to juggle the multiple roles of acting, directing, and trying to survive a freaking snowstorm.

But it was all worth it to Clooney, who says in the featurette, "You want that swirling snow, you want all that look, you want it to be authentic."

Clooney stars in the space epic meets survival drama as Augustine Lofthouse, a scientist at a remote arctic research station who, with a surviving child named Iris (Caoilinn Springall), must venture through the toxic arctic landscape to try to reach and save the crew of the spacecraft Aether. Meanwhile, the crew of the Aether has grown concerned about the silence coming from Earth and set a return course, led by mission specialist Sully (Felicity Jones), flight commander Adewole (David Oyelowo), flight engineer Maya (Tiffany Boone), pilot Mitchell (Kyle Chandler), and aerodynamicist Sanchez (Demián Bichir).

The film had been earning lots of buzz, not just for its incredible cast and intriguing premise, but for being Clooney's latest directorial effort. Unfortunately, it seems that The Midnight Sky may be one of his misses, with /Film reviewer Chris Evangelista calling the film "a well-intentioned misfire."

Here is the synopsis for The Midnight Sky:

This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe. Clooney directs the adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton's acclaimed novel Good Morning, Midnight, co-starring David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Tiffany Boone.

The Midnight Sky is showing in select theaters now, but is set to make its Netflix release on December 23, 2020.