Speaking with
I Am Rogue at WonderCon 2013, director Joseph Kosinski talk in depth about his anticipated sci-fi epic
Oblivion, which stars Tom Cruise. He goes into detail about his inspiration for the story, which he adapted into an unpublished graphic novel, and he says that previously directing
Tron: Legacy helped make the film possible. He also talks about casting Morgan Freeman in the same movie as Cruise, and he finally touches on the possibility of a sequel if the first film is successful. For the full interview (in which he updates on
Tron 3 and discusses deleted scenes for
Oblivion), click the source link below.
On Whether Tron: Legacy Made Oblivion Possible:
"Yea, I don’t think this movie exists without Tron for sure. But still there are not a lot of directors out there making original science fiction. An original story in a world which is mostly sequels or based on some sort of existing well known property like Tron was, not that Tron was well known but at least it was based on something, that is the norm for studios these days. So to sell an original story makes it that much more difficult. There are a lot of factors that are important that made it possible. I knew I was going to have to get a big movie star to be at the center of it. You have to have that so I am thrilled that I got Tom (Cruise) on board very early on to commit to this project."
On Casting Morgan Freeman:
"You know, Tom and I from the very beginning talked about how amazing it would be to get someone like Morgan Freeman in that role. Then to be able to get him was not only a huge thrill for me but for Tom as well, and I think Morgan. Morgan told me that he and Tom had always wanted to work together but they were waiting for the right project and that Oblivion was the right one. So for it to be in my film was a real honor. I think the scenes between Tom and Morgan are some of the best in the movie just because you’re seeing two incredible actors with so much experience playing off each other in a really fascinating way. So I’m really excited for people to see them together."
On His Original Inspiration For The Story:
"I will tell you that I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I was having a lot of trouble breaking into the commercial business. I was trying to get into the commercial/music video business as a steppingstone into feature films and mimic the path of Ridley Scott and David Fincher, the guys I kind of looked up to. So Oblivion became away for me to keep my creative juices flowing because I wasn’t able to get any work at the time. It was kind of a side project. As a kid growing up I loved The Twilight Zone television series, the half hour episodes, with a small cast of characters, a very limited budget, and sometimes just a couple of sets. But somehow the stories had such big ideas, and big concepts to them that they always felt so much bigger than that show and even now they are a blast to watch. So I think for me it was trying to create a character driven mystery thriller, set in the future that I thought might be my first film. I purposely kept it small and contained so I could make it for a small budget. Obviously eight years later… it’s become much bigger than that. The story of Jack Harper, the core elements of that are basically unchanged. I’m really proud of that and that it survived being turned into a big tent pole film with that story in tact."
"It was just a stage in the project. The Writer’s strike occurred in 2007 so I had a treatment for a film but I had no way to actually write it. It couldn’t be written by anyone in the guild so the partnership with Radical Comics allowed me to continue working on the story by developing a series of images and continuing to refine the story more over a period of years. Then I basically used all that development as a pitch kit to the studio. So even though we really never released it as an illustrated novel the story is being told as a film, which was always the intention. I don’t have any plans to do it [release the graphic novel] right now. To me it’s feels like it’s in the rearview mirror, you know? It’s like part of the development process. The film is the end result. But never say never. Maybe at some point it will be fun to go back and show the steps and the journey."
On Whether Or Not There Will Be A Sequel If Oblivion Is A Success:
"Potentially. Honestly, just in casual conversations. We’ve talked about what happened before the movie and what happened after. That would be a thing where you’d really want the demand to be there before you start thinking about it. For me, I think it would be great to take a little break from this world for a little while. But that’s not to say we wouldn’t want to go back to it at some point."
Oblivion stars Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Melissa Leo. The film is set to hit theaters April 19th.