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Tron Legacy's Joe Kosinski Remaking Disney's The Black Hole

by Alex Billington
November 30, 2009

No one has seen any footage from Tron Legacy yet (it won't be done for another year anyway), but it seems the execs at Disney are quite happy with what they've seen so far. THR's Heat Vision blog announces that director Joseph Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey, who are currently finishing Tron Legacy together, will next remake Disney's 1979 sci-fi film The Black Hole. This new version will be a "reinvention" (or a reboot or whatever you want to call it) and is being written by Travis Beacham, who worked on the Clash of the Titans script. This is one of the first projects put into development at Disney by new exec Rich Ross.

The original Black Hole, directed by Gary Nelson in 1979 for a budget of only $26 million, 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. The details of the update are being kept secret, though the take does involve grounding the story in the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original. And there will be menacing robots once again.

They don't say know yet whether this will be Kosinski's very next project following Tron Legacy or not, as he's also got another personal sci-fi project called Oblivion lined up as well. And once the rest of Hollywood gets a taste of Kosinski's style and the buzz for Tron Legacy, they'll be trying to get him attached to tons of projects coming up as well. I haven't seen the original Black Hole, but I'm definitely planning to check it out. From what I know of Kosinski and what I've seen of the new Tron Legacy, this guy has some amazing style. Being a huge sci-fi fan as well, I'm down for seeing him take on almost anything next, as long as it's sci-fi.

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

xerxex

hmm...cool.
negropolitan

Wicked.....!!! I loved the Black Hole when I was growing up.... The wicked robot with the propeller, and Joseph Bottoms with the double barrel laser gun!! Cool.......
http://www.thenameless.org Mike McRorey

I loved Black Hole. A lot of people don't see the tie-in between The Black Hole and The Incredibles. You can really see the heavy influence on the black robot from The Incredibles with the robot Maximillian from the Black Hole.
Dan W

Sounds like a really cool sci fi movie. For those who have seen it, is it a kids movie or is it serious? I could see this being a really creepy and interesting sci fi movie. I just hope they treat it seriously.
usonnychiba1

God I love the Black Hole. I wouldn't call it a kids movie but it has kid friendly moments. I saw this in the cinema as a child and it blew me away.
Shane

The original had one of the most bizarre, yet strangely incredible endings in movie history.
napoleonblownapart

I loved this film as a kid and although I don't like remakes thought this was one film that could benefit from one. The bit with Anthony perkins used to give me nightmares. The ending was pretty trippy/haunting
esophus

So no Logan's Run?
thorsten d

WTF?!!! Let's be honest here - I've had the ...well, call it misfortune to see The Black Hole in theaters back when i was a kid, and it sucked even then, big time! I think it's one of the worst films i've ever seen, and with its thin-as-razor-story, bad acting, shitty effects and pompous, pseudophilosophical ending it's still beating something like 'Transformers' on a shit-o-meter-scale. Rebooting' this crap says a lot about the state of fresh ideas and concepts in Hollywood - they're quite nonexistent ... but hey, they even succeded in (re)making gold out of such shit like the original Battlestar Galactica series. Maybe the Gods of Reboot will smile upon us ... till they find bigger crap to re-imagine. Oh boy, we live in interesting times!
http://www.10tu.com/forums dRailer

Agreed with #6, especially for being a Disney movie. I didn't love the movie, but I do remember thinking about the movie recently and wondering what would happen if somebody with "win" had made it. A lot of classic actors in the original - given that it had robots with great big eyeballs and people floating around in the void of space without imploding or exploding or whatever - it is surprising any of them went on to make any further movies. Oh yeah and the perfectly round asteroid that happens to smash through precisely one layer of hull and roll down a trench... yeeesh.
bozo

Ha! Neat. Will be interesting to see if they can recapture the first one's... je ne sais quoi!?
shadow

Thanks for the spoiler warning in the the plot synopsis. /sarcasm
The One

Man saw this movie way back when.... don't remember much of it except for the robots, but it's one of those movies that's always been in the back of my mind... don't know why. Might have to try and see if I can find a copy of it. But a remake sounds good.
Lazarus from Sparta...DETHKLOK RULES!!!!!

Wow...the 21st century of movies and tv shows will be named..." The century of Remakes, Reboots & Re-imaginings " Well I love science and when they talk about black holes, and I love robots. So I'm in regardless! Loved the original.....that ending was so Kubrick 2001!
birddog

Why are my comments always deleted from this thread?
zubzwank

The original BH was one of the dying gasps of the "old" Disney (read: pre Michael Eisner) trying to keep up with the then new "grown-up" sci-fi from guys like Lucas, Spielberg and Ridley Scott. It was so loaded with typical Disney cliche (a "sheriff" robot, with a cowboy hat as I recall, named old Bhob who sounded like Charlie from Wagon Train, a chaste young man and woman trying to court and spark, an evil genius leading all to destruction for his own nefarious reasons, etc.) that the movie could have come out in 1959 instead of '79. It was modeled after the Disney steam-era sci-fi triumph 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea. Having said that, it was worth watching for its effects, which were created by some of the then-traditional greats of the field. Those who have grown up on CGI--now almost a generation--would scoff at its miniatures, blue screens, superimpositions, in-camera tricks, models, etc., but I love that stuff. Also, it did have at times a bit more sci-fi/horror atmosphere. The black hole itself looked like a Drano ad. The movie was a misfire. The ideas have been explored elsewhere: black holes lead to other dimensions, the past, the future, heaven, hell, Eden, Lovecraftian horror, your "reverse" life, etc. Technically, since black hole gravity is so strong it sucks in light, wouldn't people and metal ships just get crushed into atoms (or less)? A fresh approach might be interesting.
"David Webb"

Well, the original had a fantastic look and I remember being scared shitless by Maximilian when I was a child. The black hole visual effect always had me hypnotised too. The characters and story, however, were weak, and that ending was just nonsense. I'd definitely be interested in a remake of this movie (even though Event Horizon sort of already did).
http://yahoo.com DE LAY

The original movie was such a missed opportunity by Disney even with that awesome ship model and the great Matt paintings.I hope this nexted attempt will leave out the childlike robots and the weak 20,000 leagues story is routine,that said. I would love it see a front story of the mission to the black hole and the tragic demise of the crew with them going through the black hole and coming back changed,dieing and mad only to become slaves to Dr.Rhinehart and the warped AI that undermines the ego manic rhinehart into going back through the black to get data on a budding new universe or anti-mater creation.I would like it be a dark battle of ethics between high science and faith our technology.Or maybe traveling to our past only to find the earth hasn't developed past a water world yet!people start to degenerate to the current earth time,who knows you can be a god in maya cgi. Theres alot to work with and I'm looking FW to seeing what they come up with.
Wyatt Scott

Loved this movie and it still is real cool. Get off yer high horse elitists (i.e. #9). It's called entertainment Bud. You're probably some overly confident, overly nerdy 40 year old computer geek still playing with star wars figures and can't get laid. For the rest of you, yeah, this movie always brings back fond memories of being a kid and having a wild imagination that can fill in the cracks and look past the bloody stupid details (i.e #9). My dad was a radio astronomer in the 70's and discovered some quasars, which are giangantic and ancient, like 10 billion year old, black holes. If you are interested in black holes and the Universe, pick up the book The Universe In A Nutshell, or A Briefer History of Time. These were written by the Einstien of our time, Stephen Hawkings and while a bit difficult to grasp conceptually at first, the ideas/theories presented, once you give them a chance, are mindblowers. I hope the remake of the BH does the original some due justice and expounds on the science aspect more cause this space stuff is truly fascinating.
zubzwank

You know, Wyatt, I agree with the "elitist" thing, but turning comments into personal attacks just lowers the quality of forums like. It makes it sound like the republicans and democrats deciding on national and international issues. You don't want to sink that low, do you?