The Black Hole Remake Coming from Disney

Tron: Legacy has gotten Disney all excited about resurrecting its almost forgotten and often not successful early forays into big-budget science fiction. Next up is a reboot of The Black Hole, according to Michael Hickerson at Slice of Sci Fi.

Joseph Kosinski, director of Tron: Legacy, wants to direct a remake of The Black Hole, the 1979 outer-space thriller that Disney gummed up with annoying robots and scenery-chewing acting. (Other than that, actually, there are some pretty good points in the movie.) The new version will reportedly retain some elements of the old version -- including the unique design of the big ship, the Cygnus -- but will strive to be more scientifically accurate.

Hmmmm.

Avatar -- The First Half-Billion-Dollar Movie?

The New York Times and Slice of Sci Fi, among others, are reporting that James Cameron's new science fiction film Avatar will cost studio 20th Century Fox about $500 million, once you factor in the production budget and the marketing budget. And yet, the studio seems rather chipper about earning a profit on the flick (or else they've bought some really good insurance).


Slice of Sci Fi notes that Cameron did this with his last big flick, the budget-busting Titanic, which scared industry executives with its price tag but which went on to earn untold trillions at the box office. I also remember that when Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Cameron's sequel to the low-budget B-movie Terminator, was coming out, it was also thought to have an astronomical, never-to-be-paid-back budget. T2 cost about $100 million, and it also went on to make gazillions.

So a half-billion sounds like a lot -- I mean, I could think of many cool uses for even half of that -- but Cameron does know how to deliver.