Home Entertainment This concept art blow-out for Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski's OBLIVION hints at epic space opera

This concept art blow-out for Tom Cruise and Joseph Kosinski's OBLIVION hints at epic space opera

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Maybe blame it on all those pesky thetans, but it would seem that Tom Cruise has developed a recent thing for sci-fi. Over in Doug Liman’s All You Need is Kill he’ll be a future soldier in an interstellar war doing the space-based Groundhog Day thing, and for Joseph Kosinksi’s Oblivion he’ll be a space mechanic.

Now I know that last doesn’t bit sound too enticing, but going on the previously released synopsis and now these 15 pieces of gorgeous concept art for the film, it’s going to be EPIC – capitalization fully intended.

Tom Cruise stars in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. 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 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.

[Update: Images have been removed following a legal request from NBC]

I don’t know why, but even with knowing the synopsis for this film, I always thought of it as a bit more self-contained, a bit smaller in scope. Those art pieces hint at some straight-up, geek out space opera, and if there’s ever a man that translate those amazing art pieces to the screen it’s Joseph Kosinski.

Kosinski of course directed the greatest Daft Punk video of all time in Tron: Legacy, and while that film had several flaws in its script, nobody could ever call it anything but gorgeous. Oblivion though was developed from an idea for a graphic novel that Kosinski had with comic writer Arvid Nelson, and having been a huge fan of Nelson’s long running “Rex Mundi” comic book, that gives me huge hope that those scripting pitfalls he ran into with Tron will be avoided here.

Buoying those hopes even further is the fact that that story idea was turned into a script by Kosinski himself teaming up with Academy Award winning soon to be Star Wars scribe Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), William Monahan (The Departed, Body of Lies, London Boulevard) and Karl Gajdusek (Last Resort, Dead Like Me). That’s quite the collection of writing talent.

Now couple that with the on-screen talent of Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo and Zoe Bell and you’re looking at one potentially amazing movie.

The first trailer for the film is set to debut in front of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in a couple of weeks, and I think I may need to wear my geek diapers just in case.

Last Updated: December 4, 2012

4 Comments

  1. Holy bloody Mary, this looks like a cross between Dune, 2011 and Mass Effect. Crap, going to have to order scifi diapers again…

    Reply

  2. Decembermaloy

    December 4, 2012 at 14:21

    He’s going to marry his co-star…. mark my words…

    Reply

  3. Gavin Mannion

    December 5, 2012 at 08:16

    And their gone.. sorry but we got a legal letter from NBC 🙁

    Reply

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