10 Things You Didn't Know About BlackHole

[Music] in the late 70s there was a science fiction movie like no other one that captivated people's imaginations one that changed the way we looked at movies one that broke new grounds and that movie was of course star wars but during the hype of star wars a lost gem called the black hole also came out a movie that was overlooked for its time but one that has a lot to say a strange and surreal tale designed to grip viewers with intrigue and suspense a movie that was disney's entry into the new space movie craze of the late 70s released in 1979 it tells the story of a small group of astronauts who encounter a black hole and a large spaceship defying its gravity where they meet its sinister commander dr reinhart who has a dastardly plan with the black hole [Music] despite the fact that for its time it was shrugged off as a star wars clone does that mean we should completely write off the black hole hell no this underrated gem of a movie deserves a fair go so today we are going to look into 10 things that you didn't know about the black hole let's check it out [Music] number 10 the poseidon in space the black hole is often given the label of disney's answer to star wars you know before disney actually made star wars however the black hole wasn't just an attempt by disney to jump on the new space fantasy craze that started with the as mentioned star wars nope cute robots and all that's not true the black hole was first conceived in the early 70s when disaster movies were the craze in the box office thanks to movies like the poseidon adventure and the towering inferno and not forgetting of course the swarm the disaster movie with bees scriptwriters bob barbash and richard lando came up with an idea what if we made a disaster movie in space yeah why not the other disaster movies have cruise ships airplanes and skyscrapers so why not space and yes that was the true motivation of the black hole taking the disaster movie genre of the 70s and putting it in space number nine original title when bob barbash and richard lando wrote their first draft of black hole it wasn't called black hole that's because it didn't even have well a black hole instead the movie was called space station one which admittedly isn't as much of a striking title the writers took their script to disney pictures disney's future ceo ron miller came on board as producer who then hired disney film producer winston hibbler to helm the production where hibler said you know what this movie needs it needs a black hole and so the black hole element was added to the story however a full year of working on the project had passed and hibbler just wasn't satisfied with where things were going so he hired scriptwriter william wood to rewrite the script so now it'll seem that the project was finally off the ground that is until hibler retired from disney and then the project was shelved wow i guess that's show business for you you'll win some and you'll lose some number eight reviving the project disney's space fantasy movie would get picked up again in 1975 where now it got a new title nope not black hole yet this time it was called space probe one but then what do you know the following year hibbler stepped out of retirement and went back to work on producing this movie what really got it off the ground was hiring artist robert mccall to draw up some concept designs of the movie to get everyone excited for this space adventure and what would have helped is the fact that mccall had previously done art designs for 2001 a space odyssey along with hiring peter ellenshaw to draw up some designs whom had previously worked on mary poppins so it seemed that finally now the black hole was flying high and nothing could stop it except that hibbler then passed away as sad as that was unlike last time the project wasn't scrapped instead ron miller the disney's producer originally approached for the film stood in as the movie's main producer yeah the production of this movie is a long and messy one and the trials and errors don't end there number seven the search for a director director john huff was brought on board to direct the black hole he had just directed the disney movie escaped to witch mountain so he seemed to be a wise choice of director to go with however huff didn't like the script so he passed the script onto summer arthur long to do rewrites then ed coffey was brought on board to do rewrites of those rewrites and then jeb rose brooke was hired to do rewrites of those rewrites yikes so many rewrites while while all these rewrites were happening the popularity of the disaster movies were declining so the story was changed to resemble more of the story as we know it a small group of astronauts encountering a mysterious black hole however director huff then left the project to direct brass target instead so freaky friday director gary nelson was offered to direct this exciting and bedazzling movie and he turned it down but then after seeing some of the artwork created for the movie he then decided to be black holes director however still unsatisfied disney hired writer jerry day to do more rewrites where the movie was finally given its title as we know it the black hole i swear this movie has had more rewrites than i've had hot dinners it seems that the biggest problem with the script that was causing all these rewrites was the scientific inaccuracies which were so mind-boggling alan dean foster who wrote the movie's novelization couldn't make sense of it and came up with a list of changes to make to the story in order for it to make more sense which led to a meeting at disney to be held to try and figure out what to do number six the special effects of the black hole so with george lucas's star wars coming out and being a big hit disney knew that that was the direction to go in they wanted to hire industrial light and magic's equipment to use on black hole but the equipment was unavailable once again how times have changed so instead disney created their own special effects division known as automated camera effects system yep it just rolls off the tongue call it aces for short where they created the technology similar to star wars in filming miniature models and took double exposure photos of the models which helped them to move more convincingly against matte paintings interestingly the green grid sequence at the start of the movie was for its time the longest computer graphic sequence to appear on film so yeah take that star wars alien and the star trek motion picture [Music] number five the music of black hole star wars had john williams alien had jerry goldsmith so disney knew that when it came to scoring black hole they would need a composer of equal momentum so they turned to none other than john barry who was best known for composing the james bond movies incidentally also that year barry also scored moonraker the bond movie where bond goes into space yeah look it was the late 70s at this stage it was all about going into outer space and disco barry delivers a haunting and mesmerizing score that is both beautiful and impactful the score is also known to be the first digital movie score incidentally the black hole begins with an overture which star trek the motion picture also did that very same year making the black hole and star trek the motion picture to be the last hollywood movies to use overtures back in the day overtures were known to be used for big blockbuster movies like ben hur and gone with the wind and now they were being used for space adventures with cute robots however by 1979 the use of overtures was beginning to become old-fashioned and a dying art so henceforth overtures were no longer a part of cinema and the black hole and star trek the motion picture were the last movies to use this bygone technique number four disney grows up the black hole has the distinct honor of being the first disney movie to be rated pg up until that point disney mainly made movies aimed at small children but now disney was broadening its audience horizon by making a movie to appeal to adults as much as kids in fact most of the cast looks about middle-aged which breaks away from the usual disney formula of having its movies focus on child characters there are some pretty dark themes and scenes in black hole and it just feels more mature than your average disney movie of that time especially when compared to other disney movies that previously came out in the 70s like bed knobs and broomsticks and pete's dragon no more whimsical singing and dancing in this film black hole was also notorious for using words like damn and hell and of course its use of violence to put it bluntly disney had grown up and matured into the new star wars era which would lead to other movies like tron and return to oz where for better or worse disney would go on to become the juggernaut that it is now well it kind of started off with the black hole number three uncredited voice acting the black hole features a huge lineup of stars including maximilian shell robert foster and anthony perkins to name but just a few interestingly actress and model jennifer o'neill was originally cast in the movie as dr kate mccray but she ultimately ended up getting replaced by yvette me wait a sec i'm to have to look this up yvette mimirs at least i think that's how you say it in addition to that several actors were considered to play the movie's villain reinhardt including peter cushing christopher lee donald pleasance and max von saido till maximilian shell landed the role however two of the movie's stars didn't even make it into the credits these include roddy mcdowell who voiced vincent and slim pickens who voice bob the two r2d2-esque robots of the movie i don't know why they weren't credited but my guess is probably to help keep the illusion of these characters being robots on a side note director gary nelson didn't think that the bob robot looked run down enough so he went to the clay model that was being used as a reference for the robot prop and then whacked it a few times with a baseball bat and was like there that's how he should look which is how the robot got is completely run down and battered look i guess you could say he made a home run with that one [Music] number two merchandising merchandise had proved very popular with star wars especially with its action figures so naturally the black hole had to get with the figure action 2 where migo released a figure lineup based on the movie and for a start these figures were well sculpted really capturing the characters seen on screen they looked great and just like star wars there was plenty of heroes villains and robots in the lineup however unlike star wars the toys didn't really catch on and disappeared into obscurity where they are now highly sought after by collectors and fans of the movie i think it's a shame because once again they looked great also whitman comics released a few comic book issues of the black hole and as with the figures the comics also looked great they were bright and colorful and vibrant and recreated the feel of the movie for the printed page i guess it helps that comic book artist legend jack kirby illustrated the comics there was even an issue released called beyond the black hole which acts as a sequel to the movie for all fans who wanted to know what happened next after the credits rolled however the comic series only lasted for six issues with both the figures and the comics being a must for collectors who love the black hole number one lackluster release although the critics praised the movie's visuals and noted that it's a beautiful looking movie with great special effects they also felt that the movie didn't quite live up to the momentum of star wars with gene siskel calling the movie doll sadly that's the movie's greatest crime that it was released in the wake of star wars which was a huge popular powerhouse so naturally it was going to be compared to star wars which is unfair as the black hole isn't a star wars clone but its own thing in a way it's kind of more like a psychological thriller in space unlike star wars which was an action-packed adventure i think disney were trying to make something to make the audience think and challenge them slightly so i think for its time people shrugged off black hole and thought to themselves what is with all this intellectual thinking stuff hey i just want to see space battles also at this time there was an onslaught of spaceship movies so maybe by the time black hole came out people kind of had enough of space adventures on the big screen the movie made over 35 million dollars in the domestic box office on its 20 million dollar budget so it recouped its money but it wasn't a big success either however in later years the black hole has gathered more and more appreciation with fans claiming that the black hole is a great science fiction movie and it was just overlooked for its time and that it deserved so much more when it came out [Music] the black hole is an underappreciated movie and it does deserve a second chance so i urge people to give it another go don't go in thinking you're going to see star wars but rather something different something more surreal insightful and thought provoking anyway i'm minty and remember the black hole is a journey that begins where everything else ends see ya [Music] you

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 121,689

Rating: 4.953433 out of 5

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Id: lAF7iFmUZ7Q

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020