Oblivion – imagined by Joseph Kosinski – hits theaters on April 26. The origins of the story can be found in a dystopian, unpublished graphic novel titled “Horizons.” Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Yes, the folks at Bleeding Cool (via GiantFreakinRobot) recently published a slew of Oblivion images, some of which can be seen below. The pictures originated from a comic book that was actually given away to San Diego Comic Con attendees way back in 2010.
“It was just a stage in the project. The writers’ 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,” Kosinski told Empire magazine.
“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.’ As for whether we’ll ever see the printed version of the story? ‘I don’t have any plans to do it right now. To me it’s feels like it’s in the rear-view 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.”
The official (film) synopsis of Oblivion is thus:
“In a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition, the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jak [Cruise] discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”
