Kosinski's BLACK HOLE remake to begin Scripting Soon and will Preserve many Iconic Elements
As we reported back in December, Disney has brought on the same creative team behind the studio's Tron Legacy, to bring a new version of another classic sci-fi touchstone, 1979's The Black Hole -- which was then, the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced, costing $26 million dollars, and was the first PG-rated Disney film that helped put the company on the special effects map.
Unlike Tron Legacy, which serves as a sequel to the 1982 film, director Joseph Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey will be bringing us a new vision of Black Hole, while still preserving many of the film's classic sci-fi staples.
Kosinski told MTV early in January:
It won't be a sequel like Tron. This one will be a reimagining. For me, it would be taking ideas and iconic elements that struck me as timeless and cool and preserving them while weaving a new story around them that's a little more 2001.
The original 1979 film followed a group of space explorers aboard the USS Palomino who come across a lost ship, the USS Cygnus, hovering outside a black hole. Inside the Cygnus, the explorers meet a scientist, commanding an army of faceless robots, who explains his crew deserted him as he planned to go through the black hole. The explorers soon discover that the robots are the remnants of the former crew and that the scientist has no intention of letting them leave.
Kosinski also revealed that writer Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) will begin drafting a script in early 2010.
We've got a really strong idea and concept for the film. The title alone has tremendous amount of potential. We've got a really talented writer on it named Travis Beecham. We're just getting started on the script in the next few months.
Among the elements Kosinski will have Beacham work into his adaptation are the red robot, the gnarly death of Cygnus' top dog Dr. Alex Durant (played originally by Anthony Perkins) and the design of the ship.
Kosinski explained:
I saw Black Hole as a little kid. What sticks out most is the robot Maximilian. The blades and the vicious killing of Anthony Perkins. That freaked me out and that's definitely going to be an element that will be preserved. The design of the Cygnus ship is one of the most iconic spaceships ever put to film. From a conceptual point of view, we know so much more about black holes now, the crazy things that go on as you approach them due to the intense gravitational pull and the effects on time and space. All that could provide us with some really cool film if we embrace it in a hard science way.
I have to admit that I haven't seen The Black Hole. So I can't really say whether or not Kosinski's ideas will be a good fit for the film. But with the reverence he's brought to Tron -- or at least what we've seen from it -- while updating it for a more technologically savvy audience, Black Hole seems to be in the right hands; especially considering Disney's eagerness to have him behind another one of their cult properties. Bringing in elements of scientific discoveries from the last 30 years is sure to open up many doors, a sort of science-non-fiction aspect, and could bring a definite weight to the film.
Have you seen the original Black Hole? What do you think of Kosinski's ideas, and what new scientific elements do you think will be included in the film?