"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
