Director Joseph Kosinski‘s much maligned follow-up to Tron: Legacy has finally found it’s legs. After Disney dumped Oblivion, a sci-fi epic based on Kosinski’s graphic novel, the project entered a hellish limbo. Now, Deadline reports that Tom Cruise has committed to the project, with Universal now footing the bill.
The project, scripted by The Departed‘s William Monahan and rewritten by Karl Gajdusek, was cut loose at Disney after the filmmakers decided they couldn’t reign the dystopian tale in for a family-friendly PG rating. Universal, who apparently came in second in the bidding war, have agreed to produce and distribute the picture, which will be rated PG-13.
Here’s the synopsis:
“In a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition, the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jak discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”
It still sounds pretty freakin’ cool to me, and decidedly un-Disney-ish. And the concept art is wicked. Still, with the studios shying away from such staggeringly expensive projects as Guillermo Del Toro‘s At The Mountain Of Madness and that 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea remake which was scrapped even as costly sets were being built, should Universal bet on a still-unreleased graphic novel title?
With Cruise now onboard – and what with his recent let’s-rehabilitate-this-image casting in Adam Shankman‘s Broadway musical adaptation Rock of Ages – it now seems like a safer deal. While I liked Tron: Legacy, it was admittedly pretty underwhelming… still, I think Kosinski has a unique vision, and he’s really just getting started.
Meanwhile, watch Tom Cruise go back to the well in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which opens December 16.
Will you see Oblivion? What do you think about Cruise’s involvement? Are you afraid it might become a Scientologist allegory?