Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

The Black Hole

2/11/10 - The classic Disney sci-fi movie The Black Hole will get a remake by director Joseph Kosinski.  Speaking with MTV, Kosinski said writer Travis Beacham will begin drafting the script soon.  "We've got a really strong idea and concept for the film," Kosinski said. "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."  The 1979 original focused on a ship on a deep space mission and its encounter with a lost vessel called the Cygnus, home to a lone scientist in charge of an army of robots (including the hulking red killer Maximilian) who turn out to be the ship's missing crew. Kosinski's updated version won't pick up after the events of the first film, but rather will rework them with a vastly bigger budget and a deeper understanding of the science behind black holes.  The new movie will include iconic elements, such as the red robot, Maximilian; the death of the big villain, Dr. Alex Durant; and even the design of the ship Cygnus, Kosinski said.

12/1/09 - Disney is preparing another expedition into The Black Hole, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Joseph Kosinski, Sean Bailey and screenwriter Travis Beacham are teaming up for what is being labeled a reinvention of the 1979 sci-fi film, which at the time was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced.  The original 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 that 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, but it's known that the take will ground the story in the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original. The character Maximilian will return.

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