Director Joseph Kosinski first made big waves when he helped Disney with a slick, soft reboot of their beloved film “Tron” with “Tron: Legacy.” Though the film didn’t really perform well at the box office, it’s become something of a cult classic. Also, it easily features one of the better modern film scores from the former Parisian electro-pop duo Daft Punk. A third film that Kosinski was involved with was planned, but sadly the studio unplugged it, and the filmmaker moved on to other things. Thankfully, Kosinski has since found his stride with “Top Gun: Maverick” as the legacy sequel inches towards making a billion dollars at the global box office and has been driving critics/audiences wild for weeks.
“Maverick” took so long to release after multiple delays during the pandemic that Kosinski was able to shoot another film, “Spiderhead,” before the ‘Maverick’ release. While promoting “Spiderhead” recently, the director had an interesting chat with The Wrap about another Disney project that never came together.
Kosinski revealed that his long-forgotten, canceled remake of the 1979 Disney sci-fi flick “The Black Hole” that was penned by “Dune” franchise screenwriter Jon Spaihts (“Prometheus”) shared too many similarities to Christopher Nolan’s space drama “Interstellar” which ultimately killed it. However, Kosinski is still mulling over his interest in reviving it if that opportunity presents itself, as he’d like to reunite with Disney.
“I still feel like that movie is one of the most unique that Disney’s ever made, the original, I mean,” Kosinski told The Wrap. “It’s wild. The idea of a journey to a black hole is still one of those things that is very intriguing because it’s not science fiction. They really exist, and all the effects that happen around them are real physics. So there is a great story to be told about that journey. I just, at this point, I haven’t figured out what that would be for me yet.”
If you’re unfamiliar with “The Black Hole,” here is the film’s synopsis:
In the future, a spaceship dubbed the USS Palomino is on its way back to Earth when it discovers another ship that had been assumed missing, the USS Cygnus. Kate McCrae, a scientist aboard the Palomino, learns that it’s the same ship upon which her father had served as a crew member. When the Palomino’s crew boards the Cygnus, they are met by Dr. Reindhardt and a bizarre, faceless army who plan to be the first people ever to explore a black hole.
Given the massive success of “Maverick,” you have to imagine Disney is looking to reunite with Kosinski on something in the future. And his newfound clout could ostensibly get “The Black Hole” greenlit again. But Paramount, Disney, they’ll all have to wait. Kosinski’s next movie is an action-packed Formula 1 racing flick starring Oscar-winner Brad Pitt for Apple TV+ that is expensive and sure to thrill audiences in the same way “Maverick” did.