Corona | Coming Attractions

The first trailer for Tom Cruise's upcoming sci-fi film Oblivion has hit, and thanks to it, a lot of the missing pieces of the movie's story have been filled in. Specifically, we now get a much better idea as to what Cruise's character is doing on the Earth. As well, the trailer sets up a couple of mysteries that are there to entice audiences to see Oblivion when it arrives in theaters next April.

Oblivion will now open one week earlier than originally planned. The movie's new release date is April 19, 2013, but what's really interesting is that Universal Pictures will release Oblivion another week ahead of that, on April 12, in IMAX theaters.

It's a highly unusual move for a studio to seed a major release in IMAX theaters ahead of its traditional theater release, but that's precisely what the studio is doing.

Oblivion has added its fourth cast member and it's Morgan Freeman. The versatile actor's part in the sci-fi film is presently unknown save for that it's "critical" to the plot.

Jessica Chastain (The Debt, The Tree of Life) has been cast in the film, which is also currently without a title. There are two lead roles for actresses in the film, one for a mysterious woman that is found in a crashed airship, the other for a worker friend to Tom Cruise's character. It's unknown what role Chastain landed.

Walt Disney Pictures has successfully bought the Oblivion project and will produce/release it. Joseph Kosinski will direct and produce along with Barry Levine, the president of Radical (the publisher of the graphic novel.) Jesse Berger from Radical will also receive an executive producer credit.

Just because Disney bought Oblivion doesn't necessarily mean it will be Kosinski's next movie after Tron Legacy. He's still attached to direct the remake of The Black Hole for the studio and also remains the leading candidate to direct a second Tron sequel should Tron Legacy prove to be successful.

Those interested in previewing the Oblivion comic book and missed their chance at Comic-COn can now do so courtesy of Ain't It Cool. An 11-page preview of the book's first chapter is now online.

Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has signed a deal to direct Oblivion, a science fiction/action film based on his own original idea. Radical Pictures' Barry Levine, Anonymous Content's David Morrison and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button filmmaker David Fincher will produce Oblivion.

Kosinski hatched the idea for the movie when he first arrived in Los Angeles four years ago looking to jumpstart his career. "I was looking to make a science fiction film that I could do on a budget," Kosinski told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's grown since then, but it's intended to be a very spare science fiction film, with a small cast but big ideas and big landscapes."

Radical also plans on turning Oblivion into an illustrated novel that will feature 40 paintings. A piece of conceptual artwork accompanied the Reporter story. [Full story]