Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man arrives in November, but the beloved “Three Cornettos” director might have another sci-fi remake on his hands. According to scooper DanielRPK (via World of Reel), Wright is in talks to direct Disney’s remake of The Black Hole. This is a project Disney has been pursuing for years, stretching back to a failed attempt by Top Gun: Maverick and F1 director Joseph Kosinski.
Released in 1979, Gary Nelson’s The Black Hole was Disney’s most expensive feature at the time, and was also their first PG-rated movie. The tone was noticeably darker than other Disney films at the time, and included odd, kitschy visual effects. It was misunderstood at the time but has grown to become a cult favorite.
The story followed the crew of the spaceship USS Palomino, who after completing their mission in deep space, encounter the lost ship USS Cygnus, hovering outside the gravitational pull of a black hole. Inside, they find missing scientist Dr. Hans Reinhardt, the sole living human and his crew of faceless, black robots. Reinhardt plans to fly the ship into the black hole, but the others learn of a deadly secret he’s keeping from them.
Wright isn’t officially on board yet, but the report states he would direct and co-write the screenplay with Joe Cornish. Cornish is the filmmaker behind Attack the Block and The Kid Who Would Be King. He and Wright have worked together a lot over the years on Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the earliest incarnation of Ant-Man. Cornish is attached to direct one of Universal’s upcoming Lego movies.
Hopefully this pans out and we get a confirmation soon. The more we get from Wright the better, as far as I’m concerned. He’s never really made a bad movie. Even Last Night in Soho, probably his most polarizing, was an ambitious and stylish thriller that held your attention. I’m curious to see him operate on another big-canvas movie like The Black Hole.
