A Tron Reboot May Happen Finally, and Disney is in Talks with Jared Leto to Star in the Movie

Guess what? A Tron Reboot may happen finally, and Disney is in Talks with Jared Leto to Star in the movie. The news is coming from The Hollywood Reporter, so it's a reliable one:

"After canceling a third installment in the sci-fi franchise in 2015, Disney is exploring the idea of a movie that would act as a Leto vehicle.

Disney is planning to get back on the grid. The studio is in the very early stages of development for a new Tron movie, with Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto circling to star, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

No writer has been hired at this exploratory stage, and no filmmaker is involved. Justin Springer, who co-produced Tron: Legacy and executive produced the Tom Cruise sci-fi movie Oblivion, will produce. Leto and his producing partner, Emma Ludbrook, would also be involved in some producing capacity if the project moves forward.

Tron was a 1982 Disney movie set in the fantastic world inside a computer program, a cyberspace called the Grid. Starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, the film wasn’t a hit at the time but was influential with its envelope-pushing special effects. It drew a cult following in the years after its release, due to its imaginative story.

In 2010, Disney revisited the world with Tron: Legacy, which starred Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde and brought back Bridges. Joseph Kosinski directed. The expensive movie made $400 million worldwide — good enough to warrant interest in a sequel.

But it’s been a series of shutdowns and restarts for a sequel, and just as it seemed it was heading toward preproduction, the studio pulled the plug for good in 2015.

But computer programs never die, it seems, they just get upgrades. Sources say this new project is not a direct sequel and is being built out of the source code of the deleted Tron 3 script. Leto would play a character named Ares, who has not appeared onscreen before, but was a key player in that script.

At this stage, it's too early to tell if Kosinski or actors from Tron: Legacy will return."

I remind you that last week TRON Legacy director Joseph Kozinski revealed details about the plot for the cancelled TRON : Ascension and may be the reboot would take elements from the script for Tron 3, but it will not be a continuation of what has come before in the franchise. Here is what Joseph Kozinski said about Tron 3 storyline:

"The movie was called, Tron: Ascension, I think that's out there. I think we got the script to about 80%. We were in good shape. We were probably eight or nine months out, which is still a good amount of distance from being ready to shoot it, but I think the script was in good shape. What I'm excited about is the concept, which is an invasion movie from inside the machine coming out as opposed to one we've usually seen. So we hinted at that at the end of Legacy with Quorra coming out, but the idea for Ascension was a movie that was, the first act was in the real world, the second act was in the world of Tron, or multiple worlds of Tron, and the third act was totally in the real world. And I think that really opens up, blows open the concept of Tron in a way that would be thrilling to see on screen. But there's also a really interesting character study in Quorra and a "Stranger in a Strange Land," trying to figure out where she belongs having lived in the real world for a few years, and where does she fit in.”

Picture: copyright Disney

Infographic of TRON Lightcycle History

As we know Disney will move forward with the development of a TRON 3 movie in the near future and in the meantime here's a cool infographic that show us the history of the TRON Lightcycle and various other TRON vehicles.

Shanghaî Disneyland Tron Lightcycles Power Run Coaster Update

The last time we had pictures of Shanghaî Disneyland Tron Lightcycles Power Run coaster construction site it was thanks to Michael Eisner who was on site during a trip in China but this was already almost two months ago and now new pictures were leaked showing that works are going pretty quickly on this awaited ride.

When the pictures below were shot the sky was not as blue as during Michael visit but the track is still impressive... The show building is not built yet but that's normal, they will build it once the track construction will be over.

I remind you that Tron Lightcycles Power Run is supposed to use the Vekoma motorbike coaster with of course a TRON design for the motorbikes. That said, Disney won't be the first to install a Vekoma motorbike coaster in China as the Chimelong Paradise theme park already have one and if you want to see how it look, watch the video below. Of course, at Chimelong Paradise the coaster is all outdoor and it's done in a very primary way so don't expect SDL Tron Lightcycles Power Run to look like that.




The motorbike coaster itself, although it will be a first in a Disney theme park, won't be the most difficult part for WDI Imagineers. But the theming, to give guests the illusion they're in the world of TRON will be something else to achieve. As we know Tron Lightcycles Power Run will be entirely indoor and it will be surprising if WDI Imagineers wouldn't create grand views of the TRON city all along the ride...

Good news, technically speaking it shouldn't be too difficult to do as they know pretty well to do the TRON kind of "fluorescent" lighting. As a matter of fact they even had a kind of rehearsal when they did the new version of Test Track last year...

Add in-ride projection effects and a great pre-show to introduce the guests in the world of TRON and, yes, Tron Lightcycles Power Run should be a no worries and a real E-Ticket attraction, sure to become instantly a Shanghaî Disneyland favorite!

Pictures: copyright Disney

The Reason Why You Can Probably Count on a Third TRON Movie

This week Disney released a new trailer for the TRON Uprising animated series to be released on Disney XD next month. As Blue Sky Disney said in his post HERE the trailer looks terrific, and you can check this by yourself below.




The good thing is that these animated series indicates that Disney is willing to go on with the TRON license. Sure, a good animated series can help to prepare the audience to a third TRON movie, specially considering that TRON Legacy box office in 2010 was good although less than what Disney had expected ( $400M worldwide including $175M in the U.S for a $170M production budget ) and reviews of TRON Legacy were so-so with 50% of "rotten tomatoes" on the Tomatometer. So, Disney could have decided to stop anything TRON but as we can see they didn't did it. And not only that, but chances are that we'll see a TRON 3 movie in a near future. Sure, if the animated series are popular this will help to launch the TRON 3 production, but there might be another reason for that, and this reason is: Shanghaî Disneyland.



Take a look at the rendering above - not perfectly sharp, i agree, but that's the best we can get so far. It's an excerpt of the new bird's eye view artwork that was presented at the National Committee of U.S - China relations last fall. On the left of the castle you have SDL Tomorrowland. As we know SDL Tomorrowland won't have Space Mountain. Instead WDI will introduce a TRON motor bike coaster as revealed by Screamscape some months ago. And if you look well at the big white building on the very left you'll see that its design looks like a stylized motorbike - what a surprise.

Now, what you must not forget is that chinese audiences are familiar with recent Disney productions but not really with the old classics - that's one of the reason why Hong Kong Disneyland doesn't have the classic DL dark rides like Snow White, Pinnochio or even Peter Pan's Flight. Instead HKDL have the Winnie the Pooh ride as ten years ago Winnie was the most known Disney character in China. Of course chinese know Pixar animated or Pirates of Caribbean movies and TRON Legacy, when released in China in 2010 even did $18M, a remarkable number as it was the third highest of all foreign countries.



Back to SDL: One thing we can be sure of is that Bob Iger wants that Shanghaî Disneyland will be a success from day one, and also that he had a special look on the attractions developed for the park, if not the "final cut". Now that the not-yet-officially-confirmed choice to build a TRON motorbike coaster has been done, Iger probably wants to make sure, too, that the TRON license is not forgotten in China. For us who know the world of TRON since 1982 and consider the original film as a cult movie, it's simple. A TRON ride, if well done, will be a dream come true for most of us and who wouldn't like to jump on a TRON motorbike and race in the amazing world of TRON? But for chinese who didn't discovered TRON 30 years ago but only in 2010, it's different. And, as the success of the Shanghaî Disneyland ride will also depends how much the TRON mythology will be known and popular in China, that's one of the reason why - in my opinion - these animated series will be followed by a third TRON movie anytime soon.

Pictures: copyright Disney