Until we see some actual promotional art (Tom Cruise scribbling it on a cocktail napkin doesn’t count, though that would be cool), we’re not sure whether to confirm that Joseph Kosinski’s new film will actually be called Oblivion despite current reports. But it might as well be titled “Gravitas”, because it’s just gotten a healthy injection of that thanks to the addition of Morgan Freeman.
**Oblivion **/ **Horizons **/ Whatever finds Cruise as a man charged with remaining on a post-apocalyptic Earth to repair the drone ships responsible for taking out a nasty alien species that has staked out a claim to the place. The majority of humanity lives above the planet for their own safety, with Cruise connected to home via his overseer/lover Olga Kurylenko. On his latest mission, our hero meets a mysterious woman (Andrea Riseborough) who appears to have crash-landed on Earth. As he tries to help her, he finds himself confronted by ideas that change his view of the world…
Freeman’s role has yet to be specified, though we’d put good money on him playing someone official from among the surviving humans. Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt is currently at work on the latest script draft, and Kosinski should be kicking off filming next month, ready for a July 2013 release.
Freeman was last seen in Dolphin Tale and returns as Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight Rises on July 20.