By Mike Fleming Jr
July 26, 2010
EXCLUSIVE: Back from vamping Tron: Legacy for the third straight year at Comic-Con, director Joseph Kosinski this week is making the rounds at studios. He’s pitching a movie
version of Oblivion, a futuristic science fiction love story he’ll direct, based on a graphic novel he created for Radical Publishing.
Kosinski will give Disney first crack at the movie tonight, and will pitch with Radical chief Barry Levine to other studios through the week if Disney doesn’t take it off the table. This one won’t likely take long to land a buyer. Plotted by Kosinski and written by Arvid Nelson, the comic takes place in an apocalyptic future where most people live above the clouds because the surface of the Earth is uninhabitable. A soldier is stuck on the desolate Earth repairing drones that patrol and destroy a savage alien race called The Scavengers. He comes across a beautiful woman who has crashed in a craft. Together they take an epic adventure that changes his world view.
Kosinski had the idea for the project three years ago, long before he was a hot commodity. Because he was engaged for so long making Tron: Legacy, Kosinski and his reps set the project up first as a graphic novel with Radical’s Levine. Timing on when he’ll direct the film depends on script, and what happens with a possible Tron: Legacysequel. Oblivion will be published in 156-page hardcover form later this year by Random House. Kosinski’s repped by Verve and Anonymous Content.
Radical made news of its own at Comic-Con, making a DreamWorks deal for Earp: Saints For Sinners, a futuristic Western comic that has Sam Raimi attached to direct and Matt Cirulnick writing the script.