Scottish actor Gerard Butler (300, Olympus Has Fallen) stars as Jake Lawson, a scientist who is tasked with solving a weather satellite program’s malfunction, in Warner Bros. Pictures’ epic thriller Geostorm (in Philippine cinemas Thursday, October 12).
In the film, after an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world’s leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites — dubbed Dutch Boy — to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong—the system built to protect the Earth is attacking it, and it’s a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything…and everyone along with it.
Butler plays excommunicated engineer Jake Lawson, creator of Dutch Boy who found it difficult to play the political games required to stay on once the system was fully operational. “What attracted me to this story was that it had a powerful mixture of everything,” he recalls. “I loved the central elements of it as a big action film and a suspenseful thriller with a lot of humor, but also that it looked at the strained relationship between my character and his brother. It felt like it had something for everyone and that audiences could have a lot of fun with it.”
Butler’s interest in the role came to the filmmakers’ attention early on. “I got a call that Gerry was interested, and was really eager to meet him,” Devlin remembers. “When you spend time with Gerry, you become energized yourself from the energy he emanates—he’s filled with life, playful, fun, enthusiastic and charming. It was exciting to have him on board.”
“Dean and I were on the same page that, despite him already being an adult, this is a real coming-of-age story for Jake Lawson,” Butler observes. “He’s an unusual mix of characteristics: a bit of a whiz kid, unconventional, a hothead and a lost soul. He’s both brilliant and childish. I thought it was a nice challenge to take him on, especially in the middle of all this intense action.”
Butler found inspiration for Jake, in part, from real-life American astronaut Mike Massimino, a spacewalk veteran whom the actor learned was also a fan of his work. “I had watched the IMAX documentary Hubble, and he just blew me away.” Butler was also told that his performance in 300 had served to inspire Massimino each time he headed out of the hatch. “I found that out the very same week I got the script for Geostorm. That seemed like an amazing coincidence!”
Geostorm is distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company.