When Disney released The Black Hole in 1979 it was a cue for many critics to make, "It sucks!” gags. It was also pretty much a box office flop (at the time was the most expensive movie Disney had ever produced) prompting further headlines about Disney’s profits going down a black hole.
A couple of years later, Tron was released, and Disney had another box office failure on its books.
But the thing about sci-fi is that it has resonance. If films flop in other genres, generally, that’s the last you ever hear of them. But with SF, the legend just grows and grows and grows until… remake!
It’s happening with Tron. And it could be happening with The Black Hole.
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog Disney is preparing another expedition into The Black Hole.
Joseph Kosinski and Sean Bailey, the director/producer team behind Tron: Legacy have teamed up with scribe Travis Beacham for what is being labeled a reinvention of the 1979 sci-fi film. Beacham seems to be turning into a remake specialist - he also scripted the new Clash Of The Titans. The Black Hole is one of the first projects to be put into development by new Disney boss Rich Ross.
The details of the update are being kept secret, though apparently there’ll be a more realistic handling of the science of black holes (to be honest, it could hardly be any less realistic than in the original) and bad robot Maximilian will return. Which is great, because he was one of the greatest robots in sci-fi film history, up there with Gort and Robbie. Shame he had to share the film with two of the most irritating robots in sci-fi film history – if Old BOB and VINcent do make a return in the remake let’s hope it's without those Mickey Mouse eyes.
Let’s just hope the ending actually makes some kind of sense this time.
