We’ve got some news on two actor-director reteams as follows:

• Tom Cruise is set to reunite with Joseph Kosinski for the post-Oblivion racing movie, Go Like Hell.
• Gattaca’s Ethan Hawke and director Andrew Niccol are set to re-team on an untitled thriller centering on a drone pilot.

Hit the jump for more.

Director Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi film Oblivion was initially borne out of an idea written on spec, and it appears that the filmmaker is taking a similar approach to another upcoming project.  Deadline reports that MRC has purchased a secretive spec script for Kosinski to direct.  The project is described as “a grounded action thriller” and was written by Chris Cantwell and Chris Rodgers based on an idea from Kosinski.  While developing Tron: Legacy, Kosinski turned Oblivion into a graphic novel in order to better sell the concept, and Universal eventually agreed to produce the project and set Tom Cruise in the lead.

Word on Kosinski’s next project has been quiet as of late.  He entered talks to direct The Twilight Zone for Warner Bros. earlier this summer, but further news on that front has yet to materialize.  The filmmaker is also attached to direct a sequel to Tron: Legacy, though Disney still hasn’t given that follow-up a greenlight.

After breaking into features with TRON: Legacy and following it up with this year’s sci-fi effort Oblivion, director Joseph Kosinski is now in negotiations to helm Warner Bros.’ The Twilight Zone picture.  Produced in part by Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way banner, the sci-fi reboot had drafts turned in by Jason Rothenberg (Body Politic) and Tony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes).  It’s now being redeveloped with Kosinski in mind, though plot details remain guarded.  (It’s a safe bet that the color palette will feature a lot of white.)  Heat Vision reports Kosinski being in talks, though there’s no mention of how this affects his schedule or Disney’s TRON: Legacy sequel, which he is also attached to direct.  For more on the history of The Twilight Zone, hit the jump.

Out this week on Blu-ray is Oblivion.  The sci-fi spectacle stars Tom Cruise as Jack, a drone repairman stationed on the abandoned remains of earth.  With the planet destroyed by a war with the alien “Scavs” Jack is assigned to the surface with a mission to extract vital resources that fuel the new human colony.  And his mission is almost complete, but a crashed ship soon uncovers a truth that calls into question everything he believes, and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.  Oblivion also stars Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo.

In celebration of Oblivion’s Blu-ray release I recently sat down with director Joseph Kosinski for an interview on the Universal Studios lot.  He talked about what he took away from working on the project for so many years, having the opportunity to tweak the film for the Blu-ray, the music only version of the film, the difference between adapting an existing work and directing an original script, and working with the designers to create the look of the film.  He also gave a brief update on the status of the next Tron sequel.  Hit the jump to watch.

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.

While AMC is set to lose two of its flagship series fairly soon (Breaking Bad ends its run this summer while Mad Men is poised to conclude with next year’s season seven), the network is making arrangements to ensure that it remains at the forefront of cable programming.  This summer will see the debut of the Mark Strong-fronted crime drama series Low Winter Sun, and now AMC is making moves on a sci-fi series with a pedigreed team behind the scenes: Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski and Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham.  Hit the jump for much 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.

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.

Disney’s plan for a remake of their 1979 sci-fi film The Black Hole now includes screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus).  Spaihts has been tapped to rewrite the script for director Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy).  The original film starred Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine in a story that followed space explorers aboard the USS Palomino who come across a lost ship near a black hole. Inside the ship, the explorers meet a scientist who has plans of entering the black hole with his army of faceless robots in tow.  Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) previously worked on the script after Disney began developing the remake back in 2009.  Hit the jump for more, including the trailer for the original film.

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.

With WonderCon happening this weekend, Universal brought out director Joseph Kosinski 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.  While we will run the full interview soon, we wanted to share what the filmmaker had to say about a third TRON film today.

Expanding on what he already told us in an interview back in December 2012, Kosinski said that it absolutely feels like Disney wants to make it happen, that he’s two weeks away from getting a draft of the script, that they’ve been working on this story since 2009, and that the story will open up the world and give it a much broader appeal.  He also said that the movie will have a title that is not just TRON 3, but that it’s not officially set in stone yet.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

New images from writer/director Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi epic Oblivion are now available.  In addition to the futuristic tech and machinery showcased here, we get new looks at characters played by Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  Oblivion finds drone repairman Jack Harper (Cruise) scavenging Earth for scarce resources when a beautiful stranger (Kurylenko) crash lands and turns his world upside-down.

The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, and Melissa Leo.  Oblivion opens in traditional and IMAX theaters on April 19th.  Hit the jump to view the new images.