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Joseph Kosinski's 'Oblivion' Leaves Disney and Looks for New Studio

by Ethan Anderton
March 29, 2011
Source: Deadline

Back in 2009, before Tron Legacy even hit theaters, director Joseph Kosinski has been developing an adaptation of his graphic novel series Oblivion before it was picked up by Disney. Since then we've seen some great concept art for the project and heard that The Departed screenwriter William Monahan would be adapting it. However, Deadline now reports that Disney has let the project leave the studio and it's currently being shopped around to other studios. The reason? Reportedly Disney decided that a gritty PG-13 science fiction action flick "didn’t fit into the Disney mandate." That seems strange coming from the studio running Marvel now.

Oblivion is a futuristic science fiction love story taking place in an apocalyptic future where most of the population lives in clouds above an earth surface that has been rendered for the most part uninhabitable. An earthbound soldier -- stuck there repairing drones that patrol and blast a savage alien life form -- encounters a beautiful woman who crashed in a craft, and they have an experience that forces him to question his world view. Yeah, it sounds like something that I definitely have to see, but Disney's passing on it is a little weird.

The good news is that studios like Paramount and Universal all wanted the property before Disney picked it up, so it's likely to have no difficulty finding a new home. However, it's unclear if this will actually be Kosinski's next projct considering Disney also has the filmmaker developing a Black Hole remake and a Tron Legacy sequel (two more reasons that Disney's departure from the project seems strange). Either way, Kosinski shouldn't have any trouble lining up his next project and getting Oblivion off the ground at some point in the future. Sound good?

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Anonymous

Joe knows what's up. Kosinski was supposed to be Disney's wunderkind and the domestic number's for Tron failed in comparison to what Disney dropped on the marketing of this film. Disney is changing focus after what happened with that. This comes as no surprise to me and it's precisely why no one else would come anywhere near Tron. No one wants the weight of the mouse on their back. In hindsight this may have been a good way for them to recoup some of the lose, but that's why theirs film insurance ; )
David2343423

I hope the movie going to look like the concept art, and no disney and a rated "R" is a perfect perfect perfect! i love Joseph's works.but no anymore with kid movies producer disney!
http://twitter.com/JohnnyNeat Johnny Neat

What? That makes little to no sense, but seeing as I have heard this double talk before in my experiences, he's better off going some place else and doing it his way.
David Darida

Kosinki is one of the worst directors and any good looking sci-fi project will be rubbish under him.
- Lamar
  
  Dude so much hate, wasn't Tron Legacy like his first directorial job.
  - Max Renn
    
    It was the script that the weakest link.