Trivia / The Black Hole

• Acting in the Dark: According to Anthony Perkins, the actors weren't allowed to see the last twenty-five pages of the script. The cast didn't even know what the script was until they saw the theatrical cut. According to the writers 20 years later, there was a good reason: they had no idea how to end the film, and they improvised something just before filming.
• All-Star Cast: Two Oscar-winners in Maximilian Schell, and Ernest Borgnine, two Oscar-nominees in Anthony Perkins and (retroactively) Robert Forster, as well as Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, and even uncredited voice work by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Gary Nelson hated the original script, but he agreed to direct the film after seeing the concept renderings, which he thought were "magnificent".
  • Maximillian Schell was eager to be in a Disney film, having loved Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a child. As noted in Heartwarming Moments, Schell was also delighted to find out the director of Washington: Behind Closed Doors was directing the film.
• Billing Displacement: Top billed Maximilian Schell turns up 26 minutes in. Not to mention Anthony Perkins is killed off about an hour into the film, yet he's still billed right behind Schell and ahead of Robert Forster, who's arguably the film's male protagonist.
• Creator Backlash: Gary Nelson was not satisfied with the way the model shop made "BOB", saying that the robot did not look battered enough. He went to the clay model they were using for reference and hit it several times with a baseball bat. They built a new robot based on that model.
• The Danza: Played with, but not used straight. Dr. Reinhardt's henchbot is named Maximillian. The actor who plays Reinhardt is named Maximillian Schell. A coincidence, due to the fact that the robot was given the name Maximillian before Schell was cast. However, the original name was "Maximilian", and changed to "Maximillian after Schell was cast, so it's somewhat played straight.
• Deleted Scene: The original opening was to have Charlie Pizer reflecting on the loneliness of space by having him spend Christmas alone eating a dehydrated turkey. This was filmed, but cut for pacing.
• Dueling Works: Released at the same time as another space opera, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: The script was first written in 1974 and then spent five years in development.
• Follow the Leader: The basic script was written in the mid-70's, with it being inspired by the disaster films that were made at the time, but lingered in pre-production, possibly on the verge of Disney scrapping it. And then Star Wars came out...
  • Then Disney buys Star Wars 33 years later...
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: In the late-1990s, Anchor Bay, under license from Disney, released a limited edition VHS housed in a tin box, with a 48-page color booklet about the making of the film encased inside it along with artwork cards and the tape itself, which was letterboxed and had the original overture (not heard since its original theatrical release). Granted, this set was not in the league of the collector's editions of Disney animated films that the studio themselves put out around this time, but the film never had such a deluxe treatment before on video and hasn't since then.
• The Merch: The film had its fair share of tie-in merchandise (action figures, comics, storybooks, etc.), but probably the most notable is an absolutely gorgeous plastic model kit of the Cygnus held in high regard by collectors to this day. V.I.N.CENT also had the honor of receiving a coveted Disneyland pin.
• The Other Marty: Jennifer O'Neil was originally cast as Dr. Kate McCrae. She reluctantly agreed to cut her hair (she was famous for advertising hair products), provided she have a glass of wine. She went home drunk and got into an accident, prompting a recasting. Fortunately, her hair grew back and she continued her hair modeling career.
• Real-Life Relative: Gary Nelson's sister was the script supervisor. She also read the lines of the robots to the cast.
• Stillborn Franchise: There were plans for a sequel.
• Throw It In!:
  • Anthony Perkins holding up a book during his death scene was improvised onset, as if he thought his knowledge would protect him.
  • Maximillian Schell ad-libbed the line "Protect me from Maximllian".
• Uncredited Role: Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens were uncredited for their voice roles.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Not necessarily regarding the film itself, but its soundtrack; said soundtrack was planned to be released on a clear, hollowed-out vinyl record filled with oils of various colors, which would shift around and produce constantly-changing patterns as the record spun on the turntable. However, this idea had to be canned as manufacturers couldn't figure out how to create such a record without it being incredibly prone to leaking. The idea of liquid-filled records wouldn't be explored again until the resurgence of vinyl's popularity from 2007-onwards.
  • The late, great Harlan Ellison almost contributed to the movie as a scientific consultant. And by "almost contributed", we mean, hired in the morning and fired before the end of lunch break due to his loudly pitching the idea of a Disney Animated Canon porn movie (and acting out parts of it), while executives, including Roy Disney, were listening.
  • Wanting to further understand black holes, Gary Nelson planned to go to England to meet with Stephen Hawking, the leading authority on the subject, but scheduling conflicts prevented it.
  • The entire film, in general was originally going to be The Poseidon Adventure IN SPACE. Presumably, it was changed because of the success of A New Hope, resulting in the product we actually got.
  • Peter Cushing, Curd Jürgens, Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Donald Pleasence, Patrick Troughton and Max von Sydow were considered for Reinhardt.
  • Sigourney Weaver was originally considered for Dr. Kate McCrae. The studio balked, believing that she'd never be big with a name like that. Little did they know, she'd just been cast in Alien.
  • There were originally two female crewmembers. It was decided to merge them into one.
  • Early concept art for the Cygnus show she was to be named Centaurus, also the name of a constellation.
  • Similarly, V.I.N.CENT was going to be quite different.
  • V.I.N.CENT was originally an expert in 3D pool. This was changed to him being a sharpshooter, thanks to budget constraints.
  • Disney originally wanted John Williams to score the film, but seeing as he'd already scored Star Wars, it was decided they didn't want any more comparisons to that film.
  • One of the proposed endings involved the camera zooming in on Dan Holland's eye and then zooming out to reveal God's eye in Michelangelo Buonarroti's The Creation of Adam. The crew went as far as asking the Vatican permission to film the Sistine Chapel, but then scrapped the idea when they realized that being TOO religious might not be a good idea.
• Working Title: Space Station 1, Probe 1, Space Probe 1 (or Space Probe One). The Black Hole was chosen out of five hundred options.

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