Tom Cruise arrives in Mammoth, June to film scenes for upcoming epic (Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures)

The gossip surrounding the major motion picture “Oblivion” has been fluttering around Mono County ever since locals caught wind that portions of the film would be filmed locally, and that box office favorite Tom Cruise was one of the stars.

The Sheet spoke with the film’s publicist, Claire Raskind, who said media access to the film and filmmakers has been extremely limited from the outset, but provided what information she could.

The crew, which has been staying in Mammoth and June, has been here for several weeks, putting sets in place and readying for the arrival of Cruise and his costars to shoot the remaining scenes this week. Cruise arrived in Mammoth on July 9.

Raskind said the filming would likely be entirely completed by the weekend.

“Oblivion” is being billed as “an original and groundbreaking cinematic event,” from the director of the critically lauded Disney hit “TRON: Legacy,” Joseph Kosinski, and the noted producers of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark. Oscar-winning writer William Monahan (“The Departed”) wrote the screenplay.

The plot, according to Raskind: On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man’s confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind. Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete.

Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, Jack’s soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

The film also stars Olga Kurylenko (“James Bond: Quantum of Solace”), Melissa Leo (HBO’s “Treme,” NBC’s “Law & Order”) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”).

Cruise is no stranger to the post-apocalyptic genre, having also top-lined Steven Spielberg’s take on H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” Always a favorite of the tabloid media, he’s also still popular at the box office, with a string of recent hits including “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and “Rock of Ages.” His next movie, “Jack Reacher,” about a homicide investigator, who digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper, is being readied for release this December.

“Oblivion” is being photographed on state-of-the-art extremely high-resolution digital media. It began production in New Orleans earlier this year, where Raskind said many of the interiors were also filmed. The production moved on to New York City for shot from the top of the Empire State Building, among other scenes, before moving on to Iceland for the past several weeks. Mono County is the production’s final stop. The movie is scheduled for an April 2013 release.

Several projects have recently been completed in Inyo County, including scenes from director Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” (which was to have filmed in Mammoth, but was thwarted by lack of snow) and the upcoming Superman reboot, “Man of Steel.”