Previously titled One Thousand A.E., the return from renowned director M. Night Shyamalan behind the camera on After Earth has a lot of potential going for it. Real-life father and son Will Smith and Jaden Smith will star as father and son in the film, with a script coming from Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli), with a rewrite done by Shyamalan, and a final polish by the Academy Award-winning Stephen Gaghan (Traffic).
We’ve now got the first few great photos from the set to share with you, courtesy of Will Smith’s Facebook and Shyamalan’s WhoSay, via Collider. And though they don’t show filming itself, we get to see some of the locations over in Costa Rica, as well as a great shot of Will on the first day of filming this week.
“A father and son crash land on Earth, one thousand years after it has been abandoned by mankind. The father is injured in the crash, and it is up to his son to find aid.”
And for anyone interested, the director had this to say with the latest of his images, dated 6th February:
“Day 1. Two firsts. This is the first time I am shooting on a digital camera. The camera I am using is a Sony F65, and I am the first filmmaker to use it.”
Having got his career off to a fantastic start, rising to fame with The Sixth Sense and Signs, the director’s last few films haven’t been quite so well received critically. But nonetheless, they’ve always done well at the box office, with his last film, his adaptation of Avatar (the animated series) with The Last Airbender in 2010, taking $320m. from a $150m. budget.
I think a lot of people are expecting this to be a return to better critical reception with Will Smith on board as one of the leads, and it’s great to see that production’s now kicked off. Along with the two Smiths, After Earth will also star Zoe Kravitz, Sophie Okonedo, and Isabelle Fuhrman, and is currently set for a 7th June, 2013 release, perfectly primed to set the summer box office alight next year. Without further ado, here are the great first photos from the set. As usual with the first three from Will, you can click to see them full size. Does anyone else think Will’s beard is looking awesome?
