Early reviews for Tomorrowland, Disneys $190 million science fiction movie, are bad. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 50% (a green splat) and Metacritic gives it 61/100. Variety
predicts that the movie will result in "one of weakest Memorial Day weekends in recent history."
Jen Yamato of the Daily Beast interviewed Tomorrowland co-writer Damon Lindelof, who was also the show runner for Lost. He left twitter a year-and-a-half ago because he got sick of people saying crappy stuff about him.
As someone who sticks your neck out in your projects that already tease these big mysterious payoffs, do you think you got more flack because you involved yourself in the social conversation and made yourself more of a target?
Interestingly enough, in their defense, I think my Twitter persona was just a magnified aspect of who I believe myself to be. Which is that I’m self-deprecating, I’m insecure, I’m not always sure, I feel lucky to be here… these are all legitimate things. So if I say I screwed up, or I’m a fucking idiot, or I could’ve done better that time—if I’m taking shots at myself, I’m inviting people to go, “If Lindelof is doing it to himself, that invites me to do it to him.” And also, I put way too much thought into crafting clever tweets. It was like, “Wait a minute, shouldn’t I be working right now?” It’s a job.…
So even off of Twitter, you’re clearly aware of how the Damon Lindelof brand of storytelling plays with your haters. Have you ever thought, maybe this time… no ambiguity, no mystery box?
It’s so hard because it probably should deter me from doing that stuff, but at the end of the day my type is my type. It’s sort of the equivalent of saying, “Damon, you always fall for really tough, blonde Catholic girls, and every time you go out with one it just ends poorly.” It’s like, yup! And tomorrow night I’m going out on a date with a tough, blonde Catholic girl. That’s just what floats my boat, that’s what turns me on. And by the way, I’m now married to one and it’s working out pretty well so far.
