Universal wasn’t willing to pull the trigger on a big-budget horror movie starring Tom Cruise and directed by Guillermo del Toro (that’d be the lamented AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS), but is the studio prepared to bank on the star in a big-budget sci-fi movie from the director of TRON LEGACY?
Joe Kosinski’s OBLIVION was expected to be his next project at Disney, but the Mouse let the project drift into the void (Kosinski is apparently still working on another TRON sequel there, even if LEGACY didn’t prove to be quite the must-see global box-office smashing “event” they were likely hoping for).
But Universal has snatched up the adaptation of Kosinski’s graphic novel (from Radical Publishing), and is now eyeballing the toothy A-list actor to star. Assuming the director can deliver the movie for around $100 million with a PG-13 rating, they want to get cameras rolling by October after Cruise finishes the musical ROCK OF AGES.
The book 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.