Earlier this week the first trailer was released for Joseph Kosinski and Tom Cruise's sci-fi action film Oblivion, and it looks really awesome! It seems like there's a lot of excitement about the movie. The director recently sat down with MTV to talk about the film's story, getting Cruise on board, the look of the film and bringing sci-fi into the light.
I loved what I saw in the trailer, and this movie looks like it has the potential to be a great sci-fi film! Kosinski is a solid visual director, and after reading this interview is sounds like the story and character focus is going to be solid as well. He compares the film to films of the 70s like Omega man and Silent Running. There's some really interesting stuff in the interview so it's worth the read.
On the story:
I started writing this small character-driven science fiction story that was in the vein of those science fiction films of the 1970s that involved this lone survivor among the ruins of civilization, like 'Omega Man' or 'Silent Running' — it was kind of in that vein. I thought if it was going to be my first movie it would have to be something very small and contained in order to even get a chance at pulling it off. So it's the story of a drill repair man, Jack Harper, who is one of the last human beings left on earth after a massive war, which was the result of an alien invasion. Even though humankind won the war, Earth was left in such a state that we had to look for another place to settle, and Jack is left behind to monitor and secure the resource gathering operation that's happening where we're gathering the last bit of energy out of the earth's seawater in order to move onto the next step.
On the graphic novel that the movie is based on:
That was the original treatment, the story. At the time I was ready to turn it into a screenplay, WGA went on strike and we couldn't actually hire a screenwriter to work on a screenplay at that point. So in order to keep the process moving forward I teamed up with Radical Comics to develop and illustrate a novel in parallel based on this story. And we did that over a couple years, and then I got pulled into 'Tron,' which was a couple years, and as 'Tron' was in post [production] I had enough between the story and the illustrations I had done with Andre, the artist, I had enough of a package to go out and set the project up at a studio which is what I did. And then I went into feature mode so, we never actually finished the graphic novel because once it got picked up I realized that the way I wanted this story to be experienced was on the big screen and not out of the book.
On getting Tom Cruise on board:
It was our final Comic-Con for 'Tron,' and while I was showing the big Comic-Con trailer and we were doing our big song and dance for 'Tron: Legacy,' I was also launching an ashcan for 'Oblivion'—which was just kind of like an introductory chapter with eight images at the Radical [Comics] booth. And the day after I got back from Comic-Con, I got a call from Tom's agent saying that Tom had seen the ashcan and wanted to meet me and talk to me about it. I went over and met him at his hanger and I pitched him the full story 'cause he had just read that introductory beat—there wasn't a script at that point it was a story in my head. And I pitched him the whole story over about two hours and at the end of the meeting he said, 'Let's do this. I want to do this. I want to do this movie with you.' ... The role fits him like a glove. I just can't imagine anyone else playing this character.
On bringing sci-fi into daylight:
Visually, I always knew exactly what I wanted the film to look like. 'Alien' is one of my favorite movies of all time, but I feel like after 'Alien,' science fiction kind of went into the dark for a long time. It became about deep space and dark ship holes and it just went into darkness. I liked the idea of bringing science fiction out into the daylight again. So it is a daytime science fiction film where the world is kind of divided into two zones: the world above the clouds and the world below the clouds. The world above the clouds is where Jack lives with Victoria, his partner, in this operation, in the skytower which is 3,500 ft. above the ground, away from the dangers that live below, which is a very different world from the ground where Jack actually has to do his job every day. And that juxtaposition to me in concept lends itself into a visual juxtaposition as well, where you're gonna see technology set against a landscape that I feel is something we haven't really seen before.
One what we haven't seen yet:
I think the trailer does a good job at hinting that the film does have a number or twists and turns and there are hard questions being asked and there is a character who is under pressure. But I don't really want to say much more than that as to what the plot of the movie is.
The movie is set to be released in IMAX theaters on April 12th, 2012 and will hit regular theaters on April 19th, the film also stars Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo. You can watch the trailer again for the film here!
On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete.
Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Oblivion was shot in stunning digital 4K resolution on location across the United States and Iceland.
Oblivion arrives in theaters on April 19, 2013.