Joseph Kosinski is having a pretty good quarter. First he signed on to do the remake of Logan’s Run for Warner Bros. now word out of the House of Mouse is Kosinski is in final negotiations to develop and direct the sequel to Tron.
When making the original, in order to convince the studio to take a chance on a first-time director, Lisberger shot a test reel, financed by the studio, involving the deadly Frisbee battle. In a case of historical synchronicity, sources said one of the things Kosinski will be doing is working on a sequence involving the movie’s Light Cycles to work out his vision for the movie. Sources also said visual effects personnel, for many of whom “Tron” was an inspiration to enter the business, already are jockeying for pole position to work on the sequence.
Well nothing against Tron, because I know there are a lot of fans out there, but creating a sequel to a movie few rabid movie goers have seen is taking a risk. If this is indeed a follow up to the original, and not a remake, I’ll check it out. If it is a remake, I say give me the original on Blu-Ray DVD and leave me alone.
5 Comments
A few years back, they released a Tron 2.0 video game that was actually very good, and it was suposed to be a basis for a sequal. Slave Labor/Amazing Ink actually published a six issue series based on it. You can pick the game up real cheap now.
Here in the UK Tron was shown almost anually on the Beeb in my youth, I’ve seen it many a time it was one of the highlights of school holidays in Blighty where the sun never shines. So it isn’t just “rabid movie goers” who’ve seen it.
I love that film makes me go all warm and fuzzy.
I also played Tron 2.0 and it was really fun! I was thinking while playing it that they should make a sequel like the game. I would see it for sure!
There were plans for a sequel a few years ago that was going to be worked on by “The Secret Lab,” which was the Disney team that worked on “Dinosaur.” But that movie’s bomb combined with the iffiness of making an expensive sequel to a high-profile but low-profit 25-year old experimental film which was largely built on a premise that is no longer anywhere near fresh and innovative to the general public tanked the project. I believe the Secret Lab contributed unused concepts and art to the video game team, but that was the end of it.
“Reboot” ripped off Tron so much that it would just look like an updated version of that old show anyway…since Reboot was only so popular, I think it’s a fair gauge of how much T2.0 could make moneywise. Frankly, it doesn’t look like there would be a high ceiling for profit, particularly considering Lisberger considered Tron as art first, crowd-pleaser second.
There are two things T2.0’s favor though…
1. Disney’s in-house CG division (not Pixar) is struggling to come up with ideas that will sell. Tron certainly has more of a built-in adult audience than people with no kids who avoided Meet the Robinsons and Chicken Little.
2. I think most importantly, John Lasseter has often spoke about seeing Tron being developed when he was starting out in the business at Disney. It was essentially the reason he went into the field of CG animation, which kind of worked out okay for him if you think about it. So there’s an automatic soft spot there from one of Disney’s shot-callers.
I put this up there with “Super Max” in terms of how likely it is to get made.
I think this is a much safer bet than Super Max. TRON was The Matrix of its day and is as relevant today as it was more than 20 years ago. I still think the Light Cycle sequence stands up today – imagine if this was done with 2008 technology!