TRON 3 Director Makes Empire Strikes Back Comparisons When Discussing The Sequel
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Somehow, Joseph Kosinski has become one of the hottest directors of modern science fiction movies in Hollywood. His directorial debut TRON: Legacy was a visual marvel, but was considered mundane and dull, while his sophomore effort Oblivion proved to be another example of style over substance. Kosinski has three potential projects lined up with TRON 3, the Black Hole remake, and The Twilight Zone, not to mention a sci-fi TV series in development with AMC’s Ballistic City. Needless to say, the 39-year-old sci-fi director is a really, really busy man.
In an interview with SciFiNOW, Kosinski talks about the TRON: Legacy sequel, and sets some high goals for it. Although Legacy was the second movie in the film series, Kosinski wants the next sequel to be the “Empire Strikes Back” of the TRON franchise. He describes TRON 3 as something of a stand-alone film with a quick and engaging pace. Kosinski says:
What was really exciting to me about a sequel to that, like in Empire, is that you can pick up the story mid-stride and just be off to the races from the opening frame because there already is an understanding between you and the audience about what story you’re telling and who the characters are. And to me that’s what’s exciting about that, is being able to expand on that world in that way.
Since Kosinski has so many projects in development, it’s hard to say which one will be his next. TRON 3 has been in development the longest, so it stands to reason that it would be the first one in the pipeline. Kosinski provides an update, but still doesn’t toss out anything concrete like a release date or when it could go into production:
The TRON sequel is still in early stages, it’s still in the script stage. So I can’t say if and when that would go into production but the fundamental idea of the movie is something I’m very excited about, it delivers on the ideas that we set up in Legacy, especially at the end in the last five minutes, so that one is a work in progress.
A few months ago, Joseph Kosinski confirmed that TRON 3 would be shot using the glorious IMAX format, while also stating that the sequel film will deliver the promise of the final scenes in TRON: Legacy. This might be directed towards Cillian Murphy’s cameo appearance, where he played the character of Edward Dillinger Jr., the son of former ENCOM Senior Executive Ed Dillinger (David Warner) from the original TRON. It’s speculated that he had something to do with Quorra’s journey into the real world at the end of Legacy.
Meanwhile, writer David DiGilio (Eight Below) wrote the first T3 draft, while Jesse Wigutow (It Runs in the Family) is punching up the screenplay. Wigutow is also writing Disney’s Peter and the Starcatchers, a fresh take on the Peter Pan and Captain Hook story.
If I were a betting man, I would gamble that TRON 3 will be the next film Kosinski tackles. It’s been in development since the release and box office success of TRON: Legacy in 2010 ($170 million budget, $397 million worldwide box office). Garrett Hedlund is attached to reprise his role as Sam Flynn, while Olivia Wilde has expressed interest in returning to the Grid as Quorra. It’s unknown whether or not Jeff Bridges would return in some form or another, but it would be cool to see Kevin Flynn/Clu in a new TRON movie. Bruce Boxleitner is also expected to reprise his role as Alan Bradley/TRON.
