The Black Hole

In the wake of several successful disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974), writers Bob Barbash and Richard Landau approached Disney Studios executive story editor Frank Paris with the idea for a space-themed disaster film tentatively titled Space Station 1. The writers showed Paris a preliminary sketch of their idea, and the idea was later pitched to Ron Miller, who assigned longtime studio producer Winston Hibler to help develop the project. With Hibler attached, he came up with the idea of the black hole to be featured in the story. After nearly a year of work on the project, Hibler was not satisfied with the later story drafts so William Wood was brought in to rework the script. Ultimately, Hibler retired from the Disney studios, and the project was later shelved until late 1975 when development resumed on the project now re-titled Space Probe 1. A year later, in 1976, Hibler returned from retirement, and suggested to Miller to hire conceptual artist Robert McCall to create some pre-production visuals to help focus the story and explore some possible ideas.[3]

Hibler also brought matte designer Peter Ellenshaw out of retirement to create conceptual designs on the proposed film.[4][5] Four months later, director John Hough, who had just directed Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), was approached to direct the film,[6] and while he liked the premise, he felt the script needed more revisioning so he brought in Sumner Arthur Long for an additional rewrite. However, by summer 1976, the production team was still unsatisfied with the script and audience's interest in the disaster genre was steadily declining.[3]

In August 1976, Hibler died, but with the amount of work already invested in the project, Miller took over the project.

In October 1976, writer Ed Coffey was brought in to rewrite the script. By February 1977, Jeb Rosebrook was brought to restructure the story, in which the script was then changed to focus on a small core group of astronauts who would encounter a black hole, which was a phenomenon that had been a growing discussion within the scientific community.[3][7][8]

While the script was again being rewritten, Hough left the project and decided to direct Brass Target (1978).[3] In December 1977, Miller then approached Gary Nelson, who had just been nominated for a Primetime Emmy on the political miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, to direct the project. After reading a draft of the script, Nelson initially turned down the offer. However, he was called back to the studio, and after observing the miniatures and matte paintings created by Ellenshaw, he agreed to direct.[9][10]

Rosebrook finished his final draft in March 1978, but because Disney was still displeased with the script, Gerry Day was brought on to do some script doctoring.[3] After scientific research headed by marketing director Martin Rabinovitch, the title The Black Hole was selected to convey the power and mystique of the film.[8]

Jennifer O'Neill was originally cast in the film but then dropped out.[11]

Although Star Wars had revolutionized the use of computerized motion control miniature effects, The Black Hole was shot using a blend of traditional camera techniques and newly developed computer-controlled camera technology. Disney wanted to rent equipment from Industrial Light and Magic, but it was unavailable during the film's production period and was prohibitively expensive. In the end, Disney turned to its own engineering department, which created the A.C.E.S. (Automated Camera Effects System). The computerized system allowed for the camera to take double exposure photographs of the miniature models as it moves convincingly across the matte painting. It also permitted the actors to move unrestrictedly within a matte painting, and the camera tracks them within a non-existent set that would be painted in later.[12][13] The Mattescan system was then used to composite live-action shots onto a single matte painting while the camera is in motion on several axes.[14] In total, 150 matte paintings were created for the film under the supervision of Harrison Ellenshaw, but only 13 were used in the film.[13]

Coinciding with the film's release, Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization based on the film. In a retrospective interview, Foster remarked that his novelization had to rationalize the scientific inaccuracies depicted in the film.[20] Around the same time, Disney used their comic strip Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales to promote their latest film releases. Comic book artist Mike Royer suggested fellow artist Jack Kirby draw a comic strip adaptation of the film, and Kirby accepted. The comic strip adaptation, which ran for twenty-six weeks, was scripted by Carl Fallberg with the inking done by Royer.[21]

A separate comic book adaptation of the film published by Whitman Comics in 1980 bypasses the whole issue of what happens inside the black hole by having the crew enter the black hole on one page and emerge apparently unharmed on the next page into a parallel universe where they encounter alternate versions of Reinhardt, Old B.O.B., Maximilian and even Frank McCrae, Kate McCrae's father. Four issues were published. The first two issues adapted the film and the second two issues continued the story introducing a race of people called Virlights, whom they end up aiding against a rising tyrant. The rare fourth issue concludes with the promise of a fifth issue but the series was canceled before it was released. In Mexico, Editorial Novaro S.A. published the first four Whitman issues, including the fifth issue, but also released a sixth issue before the series ended.[22] Other comic adaptations released in Europe have the crew emerging into another galaxy, thus confirming Reinhardt's theories. While wondering if they will ever return to Earth, they decide to explore this new universe.

In the official Disney Read-Along recording and illustrated story book, the crew in the probe ship emerge safely on the other side of the black hole, while the Cygnus is "crushed like an eggshell." The story ends with Captain Holland saying, "We've been trained to find new worlds. Let's go find one for ourselves!" The children's book line, Little Golden Books, released a book entitled The Black Hole: A Spaceship Adventure for Robots. The story involves V.I.N.CENT and Old B.O.B. exploring the Cygnus, visiting its gardens, encountering the "humanoid robots", and escaping detection by Maximillian.[23]

The Mego Corporation produced 6 million action figures and models of the USS Palomino from the film, released in the fall of 1979.[24] Nabisco issued a series of plastic pencil holders in the shape of the film's robot characters via specially marked boxes of breakfast cereal.[25]

In 1983, Disney put out a computer learning-game spinoff, Space Probe: Math. This was a cassette containing two educational games designed for use with the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer. The concept of the first game was that the Palomino had landed on an infected planet, Delta 5 Omega. All the crew were falling under "mind diffusion", basically a viral form of fatigue. The player (aged 7–14) had to solve multiplication or division problems to save the crew. In the second game, the player had to save a primitive world's crops, using (rectangular) area and perimeter problems.[26]

Disney partnered with Fotomat Corporation on a trial distribution deal,[27] in which The Black Hole was released on VHS and LaserDisc on March 4, 1980. In October 6, 1982, Disney announced it had partnered with RCA to release nine of their films on the CED videodisc format of which The Black Hole was re-released in the following year.[28] The film was re-issued on VHS and LaserDisc as an installment of the "Making Your Dreams Come True" promotional campaign on November 6, 1985. On March 30, 1999, Anchor Bay Entertainment re-released the film on three separate VHS editions: Anniversary Edition, Collector's Edition, and Limited Edition as well as on DVD. The Limited Edition VHS was contained in a collectible tin box and accompanied with nine lobby cards, a 48-page booklet about the making of the film (featuring an interview with director Gary Nelson), and a script of an abandoned alternate ending.[29][30] On August 3, 2004 and May 2, 2010, Disney re-released the film on DVD that was presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio. Its bonus features included the extended theatrical trailer and a making-of featurette about the film's visual effects.[31]

The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time on August 13, 2019 as a Disney Movie Club exclusive.[32]

The film was available to stream on Disney+ when the service launched on November 12, 2019 (although the film was not adult-oriented film).[33]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four upon its release, saying it "takes us all the way to the rim of space only to bog us down in a talky melodrama whipped up out of mad scientists and haunted houses."[34] Janet Maslin, reviewing the film for The New York Times, wrote that the film "is attractively unpretentious and at times quite snappy — among the more sensational stunts is a shot of a huge, molten meteor rolling towards a crew of tiny people, who appear to be right in its path. Its story, about a band of explorers and a wicked space tyrant who pretends to be nice, has a comic-book feeling. But as comic books go, this one is pretty much a page-turner."[35] Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune found the film to be "dull" and claims "it takes much too long to get its less than grand finale, in which a space villain and some good guys face being swallowed by a collapsed star with enormous gravitational pull." While he praised the film's visual effects, he was critical of the film's cast claiming they were "dead stars in their own right. If actors get paid to express emotions, then the cast in The Black Hole doesn't even deserve the minimum wage."[36]

Richard Schickel of Time acknowledged that the "overpowering score, squads of menacing heavies, and, especially, two adorable robots—are straight Star Wars steals, and because, despite all this sincere flattery and a script and performances that are merely adequate, the fool thing works." He later praised the visual effects and miniature designs as an "amusing mixture of the plush and technological" concluding that it is "good to see the Disney craftsmen doing what they do best on such a grand and risky scale."[37] Reviewing the film in Ares Magazine, Vincent Misiano commented that "In the final analysis, The Black Hole is similar to its natural namesake. Nothing can escape from it either. Not a glimmer of imagination or inspiration. Perhaps if Pluto and Micky hadn't been involved…"[38]

Science fiction historian John Clute dismissed The Black Hole as "a silly concoction" where "the story disappears down the hole".[39] Phil Hardy, writing in The Aurum Film Encyclopedia, also gave the film a negative review, saying The Black Hole featured "the most heavy-handed dialogue imaginable" and added that the film's climax "has no dramatic power at all".[40] Author John Kenneth Muir wrote an extensive review of the film that delved into some of the nuances and metaphysical ideas which marked The Black Hole as more adult-oriented fare than Disney had previously been involved with.[41] In 2014, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson deemed the film to be the least scientifically accurate movie of all time. Criticizing the film, he noted, "They not only got none of the physics right about falling into a black hole, had they gotten it right it would have been a vastly more interesting movie."[42]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 39% based on 31 reviews with an average rating of 5.27/10.[43]

With a production budget of $20 million, plus another $6 million for advertising,[8] it was at the time the most expensive picture ever produced by Disney.[44] During its theatrical release, the movie grossed $35.8 million in the United States and Canada.[1][45]