Joeseph Kosinski‘s new Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman starrer Oblivion is the rarest of all things, a big budget scifi film aimed squarely at adults. While the trailers might seem like they give away the whole movie, I assure you they only scratch the surface. Things get really weird and far more ambitious than the I Am Legend-style one sheet implies.

Last week Collider sat down with Freeman to discuss his small but pivotal role.  During the interview, Freeman talked about the difficulty of always being a world leader in films, getting a demotion in Olympus has Fallen, what he looks for in a role, the importance of yawning, how to get a more mellifluous voice and much.

It was the only game in town, so Oblivion’s first place finish this weekend didn’t come as a shock. Universal’s sci-fi release had a solid debut – earning an estimated $38.1 million from 3,783 locations, or just under what G.I. Joe: Retaliation managed three weeks back. Oblivion also topped its initial domestic projection of $35 million, though the real strength of the Tom Cruise vehicle is overseas.

As the only new release of the week, it should be no surprise that Oblivion took first place at Friday’s box office. The sci-fi feature, starring Tom Cruise, earned an estimated $13.3 million from 3,783 locations yesterday, though it is unclear if that includes the $1.1 million it made from Thursday and midnight previews. Oblivion is expected to take in $38 million through Sunday. That number is slightly ahead of the film’s pre-release forecasts and would stand as Tom Cruise’s highest opening since Mission: Impossible III, if realized.

The Place Beyond the Pines expanded from 514 to 1,542 theatres on Friday. The Derek Cianfrance drama fell just short of the top five and is on track for a $5 million three-day total.  We’ll have full details and analysis tomorrow.

Joeseph Kosinski‘s new Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman starrer Oblivion is the rarest of all things, a big budget scifi film aimed squarely at adults.  While the trailers might seem like they give away the whole movie, I assure you they only scratch the surface. Things get really weird and far more ambitious than the I Am Legend-style one sheet implies.

Last week, Collide sat down with Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough to discuss their surprising and twist-filled roles.  During the interview they talked about shooting in Iceland, wanting to switch parts, the massive and elaborate sets and much more.

When science fiction wants to present thoughtful subtext, it can’t go broad.  The freedom to construct a world has to come down to precise themes.  The world can be derivative (or “inspired by” if you want to be charitable), and the themes can be universal, but they have to be cohesive.  In casting a wide net for influences, Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion mashes-up the ideas from better movies, and doesn’t put them towards abstraction or ambiguity, but towards ambivalence.  The film is more concerned with its gorgeous visuals and rousing score while the emotions become lost in a shuffle of reveals and fragmented ideas.

Joeseph Kosinski’s new Tom Cruise starrer Oblivion, opening tomorrow, is the rarest of all things, a big budget scifi film aimed squarely at adults. While the trailers might seem like they give away the whole movie, I assure you they only scratch the surface. Things get really weird and far more ambitious than the I Am Legend-style one sheet implies.

Last week, Collider sat down with writer/director Kosinski to talk about his film. During the interview, Krosinski discussed the challenges of making an original idea into a major film, designing the film for IMAX, shooting in 8k resolution on the new Sony CineAlta F65 camera and more.

Producer/director Joseph Kosinski’s visionary sci-fi epic, Oblivion, was inspired by his graphic novel written in 2005 which became the pitch for the film.  Set in the year 2077, the story centers on Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), a security repairman stationed on an evacuated, post-apocalyptic Earth who is part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying alien threat.  When Jack rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed space craft, her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he thought he knew.  Opening this Friday, the film also stars Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough and Melissa Leo.

At the recent press day at Universal Studios, Kosinski discussed how the finished film compared to what he had originally envisioned, why he likes movies that ask big questions but don’t necessarily answer all of them, the challenges of creating a sci-fi world that’s never been seen before, getting M83’s Anthony Gonzalez to compose the cool score, what the actors brought to their roles, how his background in mechanical engineering and industrial design influenced the film’s groundbreaking visual design, collaborating with DP Claudio Miranda on the high definition front projection, and why he chose not to do 3D.  Hit the jump for the interview.

Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman joins Tom Cruise in Oblivion, a visionary, action-packed sci-fi thriller directed by Joseph Kosinski opening in theaters this Friday.  Freeman plays Beech, the morally ambiguous leader of a mysterious band of survivors that continue to inhabit Earth six decades after an alien invasion irradiates the planet.  Beech suspects Jack (Cruise), a daredevil pilot serving as the last drone repairman stationed on the planet, may hold the key to saving the remaining people of Earth.

At the film’s recent press day, Freeman revealed that the main reason he wanted to be a part of the project was to work with Cruise and that he felt sci-fi was the perfect genre for them to be involved in together.  He was also drawn to the film’s awesome technology, the love theme that’s central to the story, and the fact that he got to fire a dual .50-caliber machine gun which he’s never done before.  Freeman also discussed what it’s like working with older directors like Clint Eastwood and Rob Reiner compared to younger ones like Kosinski and Christopher Nolan and how he disagrees with Humphrey Bogart and feels he owes the public a little bit more than just a good performance.  Hit the jump to read more. 

Olga Kurylenko plays a crash-landing traveler who crosses time and space in search of true love in Joseph Kosinski’s new sci-fi thriller, Oblivion.  The action-adventure saga is set in the year 2077 after a massive war has left Earth in ruins and uninhabitable.  The Ukrainian actress and former Bond girl who made a scorching impression in Quantum of Solace was game for the tough role of Julia and turns in a compelling performance opposite Tom Cruise.  Opening in theaters on April 19^th, the film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo.

At the recent press day, Kurylenko discussed what attracted her to the mysterious role, how Cruise and she collaborated with Kosinski on their characters, why she found Cruise to be a generous acting partner, how she got used to flying in the Bubbleship, how her Bond experience helped with the action sequences, what it’s like to have worked with two of Hollywood’s biggest action actors, what Cruise and Daniel Craig share in common, how making Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder compared to Oblivion, and more.  Hit the jump to read the interview.

If you read the interview that Collider’s Steve “Frosty” Weintraub recently conducted with Mondo’s Justin Ishmael, you know that Austin’s biggest screenprint retailer is dead serious about making vinyl a consistent part of their output.  Their most recent vinyl release—the soundtrack to Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, featuring artwork by the one-and-only Tyler Stout—sold out quickly upon release, and the company’s previous vinyl releases have also sold well…and now we’ve got the details on their next vinyl drop.  Pretend you didn’t read the headline and find out when the album’s dropping, what’s on it, and who did the artwork after the jump, folks.

We’ve got 27 new hi-res images from writer/director Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi thriller Oblivion to share with you today.  You may have seen some of these visual treats in previous gallery articles, but now we have them in the highest of resolutions so that you might enjoy zooming in on each of Morgan Freeman’s freckles.  There are also some bonus behind-the-scenes shots from the set of Oblivion that features Kosinski looking rather pensive.

Starring Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, NIkolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo and Zoe Bell, Oblivion opens April 19th in IMAX and traditional screenings.  Hit the jump to partake of the new images.

Fresh off his swell collaboration with Daft Punk for Tron: Legacy, director Joseph Kosinski enlisted yet another talented artist to score his upcoming sci-fi film Oblivion.  The electronic band M83 has composed an entirely original score for the Tom Cruise-fronted film, and now the score is available to stream in its entirety.  Fans of M83 should be pleased with the result, which is at once haunting and massive in scope, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the score plays within the context of the film.

Hit the jump to listen to the Oblivion score in its entirety, click here for four clips from the film, and click here to read Steve’s interview with Kosinski in which the filmmaker talks at length about M83’s involvement with the pic.  The film opens in traditional theaters and IMAX on April 19th. [Update: We've added the IMAX poster for the film, which you can check out after the jump.]

With writer/director Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion opening April 19th, we’ve been provided with four clips from the sci-fi film.  The story takes place on a dystopian Earth and stars Tom Cruise as a drone repairman who holds the future of mankind in his hands after discovering a crashed spaceship. Oblivion also stars Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo. 

Over the past few months we’ve seen tons of images, posters, images, and featurettes.  Based on what I’ve seen thus far, I’m counting down the days, especially since Kosinski told us that Oblivion will be presented “in IMAX will be full frame 1.9 through the whole thing.”  Needless to say, if you’re going to see the film, see it in IMAX!  Hit the jump to watch the clips and look for my video interviews with the cast week of release.

The folks at Universal, in conjunction with IMAX, have released two new featurettes for their post-apocalyptic, sci-fi thriller Oblivion.  The film, directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy), stars Tom Cruise as Jack Harper, a veteran sent on a mission to Earth 60 years after everything on the planet has been obliterated.  The first of these featurettes shows the visually-stunning canvas that encompasses the world of Oblivion, while Cruise and Kosinski talk about its “haunting beauty” and the decision to make the film in IMAX full frame.  The second featurette is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film in the desolate, volcanic landscapes of Iceland.  The stunning setting is sure to be a hit with IMAX viewers and quite the treat for the eyes.

Hit the jump to watch the featurettes.  Oblivion opens in theaters April 19, 2013 and also stars Morgan Freeman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Olga Kurylenko.

At WonderCon, Universal brought out director Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy) to talk to a few press outlets about his sci-fi action-adventure flick Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, and out in theaters on April 19^th.  The original tale tells the story of Jack Harper (Cruise), a veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources, after its surface is devastated from decades of war with the alien Scavs, who begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.  The film also stars Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo and Andrea Riseborough.

During this roundtable interview, filmmaker Joseph Kosinski talked about the lessons he learned from making both TRON: Legacy and Oblivion, how Oblivion has 800 visual effects compared to 1,500 for TRON: Legacy, that he’s been thinking about this world for eight years now, the elements of sci-fi that he wanted to bring into the story, that Oblivion in IMAX will be full frame for the entire film, the input that both Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman gave, why he wants to keep exactly what the Scavs are somewhat vague, including an homage to Top Gun, that his favorite format to see the film in is digital IMAX but he also thinks it’s worth checking out in Dolby Atmos (they’re the first film to have mixed in Atmos from scratch), how the film would have been different if he’d made it at Disney like originally planned, and his plans for the Oblivion illustrated novel.  He also gave an update about how things are progressing with TRON 3, and said that he has a few different scripts currently in development.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.