Comic-Con had its first big surprise on Thursday when director Christopher Nolan and actor Matthew McConaughey hit the stage to talk about their upcoming blockbuster, Interstellar.

With little information out about the film besides a trailer, the two men filled in a lot of the blanks on Nolan's follow-up project to The Dark Knight Rises.

McConaughey talked about meeting Nolan and why his character, Cooper, interested him. "He's always out for original. Everything he has to do, it has to be original."

'True Detective's Matthew McConaughey Circling Role in 'The Company Man'

He added that Cooper is a pilot, engineer, and widowed father of two children. He's living a world where civilization can only sustain. It doesn't have any "new, bright ideas." Then the dream of being a pilot comes knocking at his door, but that means he has to leave his family behind.

Nolan talked mainly about his experience with the film and what he wanted to do scientifically with the plot to make it a rewarding experience. "I'm not going to tell you what [the technical challenges] are because I want you to come see the movie."

He went on to say that a goal of his was to make the film an experience, specifically with the use of IMAX. "You need the biggest canvas possible," Nolan added. It seems like he is hoping to build off of the theatrical experiences that films like Life of Pi, and more recently Gravity, have been doing at the theaters.

Nolan also said that he didn't want to outline too many of his influences for the film, but one specifically was 2001: A Space Odyssey. "It was such a memorable experience for me," Nolan said. They want to tell a similarly ambitious story in size and scale."

The panel concluded with a showing of a new trailer. Collider said the trailer did a great job of blending both the awe-inspiring spectacle of the cosmos with the intimate story of a father trying to save his family. It really stresses the difficulty Cooper has in leaving his family, especially his daughter Murphy, because he has to save the world, but he doesn't know when (or if) he'll ever come back.

Interstellar hits theaters on November 7. The new trailer will hit in a few weeks.

Tags
Interstellar, Movies, Christopher nolan, Matthew McConaughey