George Clooney isn't new to the sci-fi genre, starring in 2015's Tomorrowland, 2013's Gravity and 2002's Solaris. We can now look for him in The Midnight Sky, which he also directs.

Clooney takes on the role of an astronomer named Augustine. The story is post-apocalyptic, based on Lily Brooks-Dalton's 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight, with Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) writing the screenplay, reports Vanity Fair. 

According to the book's description, Augustine is based in the Arctic when there's news of a catastrophic event. Augustine refuses to leave his post and finds himself utterly alone. But, then runs into a child (Caoilinn Springall), named Iris, who is also alone.

Filming has begun, with first look photos below:

https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/1309462660082094080

If you click on the above, you can see a photo of Clooney in character, holding a mug, gazing through a window at night, appearing to be very deep in thought.

We'd like to say, he's staring into the midnight sky, but his head is slanted down. And, there appears to be a flash of light in the reflection of the glass, which may have something to do with the aforementioned catastrophe.

There are two storylines going on at the same time, with Augustine and Iris on Earth, looking out for each other. And a second story revolving around a group of astronauts in space, who have lost contact with their control station. They're kind of worried that they won't be able to return home.

According to the movie description, Augustine scrambles to warn the astronauts not to come back.

Eh, well, we're not astrophysicists, but one can only stay in space for so long, i.e. fuel, food, what not. This is quite dire, and we're keen to see the outcome...

With Clooney leading this project, he has recruited some serious star power, with Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo , Tiffany Boone, Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir starring as the stranded astronauts.

You can look for The Midnight Sky over at Netflix in December.

Is this going on your read/watch list?