Where Love and Escape Do Not Compute
TR2N News Dump / Dustin Rowles
Trade News | January 9, 2009 | Comments (44)
I’ve been wholly reluctant to write about Tron 2.0, in part because I never saw the first one, and because it’s based on a game that kicked my ass when I was a kid, stealing my parent’s change, and hanging out at the Laundromat (Fun Fact: My parents actually called the cops on me after I stole all the quarters from their mint collections to play Tron and Galaga. I was in the second grade!) I’m also kind of perplexed as to why they’d make a sequel to a 26 year old movie that no one under the age of 30 has probably even seen. I get the feeling, too, that — Jeff Bridges, notwithstanding — they aren’t missing much (though I also gather that the original movie carries a lot of nostalgia for those over 30).
Anyway, they are making a sequel. It’s been in production for, like, ever. Steven Lisberger, who wrote and produced the original, is producing here, while Joseph Kosinski — whose claim to fame is directing a few commercials for Gears of War and Halo 3 — will be directing it. I had a difficult time deciding whether Tron 2.0 was going to be a decent film or a money grab, but the cast they are now assembling suggests the latter. Olivia Wilde (“The O.C.” “House”) was cast last year, as a siren, and Beau Garrett (Turistas), a former CosmoGirl, will play a programmer.
Then, this week, they hammered the nail in the coffin of Tron 2.0’s chances by casting Garrett Hedlund as the lead. That’s not a name you’ll probably recognize, but you may recognize his face. Let’s just say he’s not a particularly good actor and leave it at that. He’s kind of like a poor man’s Paul Walker, who himself is a poor man’s Mark Wahlberg (who is kind of a poor man’s Matt Damon, himself). In other words, Hedlund is financially four steps removed from Matt Damon, which is to say that he’s not even worthy of doing stand-in work on Bourne flicks, i.e., he’s on par with Ryan Phillipe. What is kind of confusing is that Hedlund apparently beat out Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine for the role, which suggests that Kosinski has set out to intentionally create a shitty film.
Not a lot has been revealed about the plot, except that it’s about a man who finds himself pulled into the world of a computer to retrace the steps of a character from the original movie named Kevin Flynn, which — again — doesn’t bode well, if the movie is seemingly relying on its target demographic having seen the original. But whatever.
Finally, I’m not sure what’s going on with this, since the principal filming hasn’t even begun on Tron 2.0, but a few months ago, Eep sent me a link to some test footage, which was unveiled at Comic Con last year. It’s blurry as hell, but the footage was clearly enough to excite the audience at Comic Con, not that it takes a lot (put a chili dog in a Princess Leia outfit and, within minutes, the floor would be viscous and sticky).
And, for shits and giggles, here’s the trailer for the original:
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Comments
Posted by: TK at January 9, 2009 9:06 AM
I actually re-watched Tron recently and you know what? It still kinda works. Sure, some of it aged poorly, but nothing's really been done like it, or at least not effectively.
That said, I have zero faith in the sequel.
End of line.